The 'credit channel' theory of monetary policy transmission holds that informational frictions in credit markets worsen during tight-money periods. The resulting increase in the external finance premium--the difference in cost between internal and external funds--enhances the effects of monetary...

Several key episodes in the 100-year history of the Federal Reserve have been referred to in various contexts with the adjective "Great" attached to them: the Great Experiment of the Federal Reserve's founding, the Great Depression, the Great Inflation and subsequent disinflation, the Great...

In recent years, a number of industrialized countries have adopted a strategy for monetary policy known as 'inflation targeting.' The authors describe how this approach has been implemented in practice and argue that it is best understood as a broad framework for policy, which allows the central...