The U.S. mortgage loan foreclosure crisis has been called quot;the worst financial crisis since the great depression.quot; There are two distinct channels of influence of the subprime problem. The first is the rise in foreclosures that affects homeowners and the real estate industry most...

Requiring taxes to be paid in domestic money provides a legal tender basis for money demand and hence to the development of a financial system. In emerging markets, the level of taxation is a positive factor boosting financial development. At higher tax rates, however, taxation provides an...

This paper looks at interest rate developments in the US and argues that long-term real interest rates are at lows not seen in the past 50 years. It explores competing hypotheses that there is a global saving glut, there is conundrum or that global capital formation has slowed. The dominant view...

In Morocco, as elsewhere, banking is the principal financial sector it has the potential to contribute the most or to most severely retard economic development. But the banking industry's potential performance is constrained by the monetary policies of the central bank. This paper reviews some...

This paper describes the financial innovations hypothesis that M1, but not M2, has been significantly affected by the introduction and growth of these new assets. An alternative hypothesis, called the competitive markets hypothesis here, has implications that are nearly the opposite of the...

Recent academic and popular discussions of budget deficits rely on a simplistic, and largely false, conception of the effects of deficits. The effects depend on the source of the deficit and on private-sector responses to it. Also important are whether budget changes arise passively through the...

Some analysts suggest that the Fed should target equity prices. This article questions this proposal on both theoretical and empirical grounds. There is a negative correlation between the fed funds rate and the price-earnings ratio, but it arises from a significant correlation of each measure...

This study evaluates the federal tax exemption for credit unions. It reviews the industry's history, its unique exemption, the motivation behind this tax treatment, the eroding case for special treatment, the size of the tax break and its effects on credit unions, their competitors, and their...

The United States economy has suffered over the past four years from crises in mortgage foreclosures and in financial markets, as well as a long recession that some have referred to as the Great Recession. The links between these events, or more broadly the causes, extent and effects of these...

The ability to predict bank failure has become much more important since the mortgage foreclosure crisis began in 2007. The model proposed in this study uses proxies for the regulatory standards embodied in the so-called CAMELS rating system, as well as several local or national economic...