Debt and deficits are considered by some to be a major economic problem, indeed one that threatens the stability of the US economy with serious, possibly catastrophic, consequences for the world economy. What is it that leads some countries into large and continuing budget or trade deficits?...

Many institutional changes have taken place to payments systems. Indeed, they have been in continual change ever since money first emerged as the dominant technology for conducting transactions. Means of settlement between banks have changed: cheques replaced cash in many transactions, and they...

A general equilibrium analysis of monopoly power is proposed as an alternative to the partial equilibrium analyses of monopolization common to most antitrust texts. This analysis introduces the notion of a cost minimizing market equilibrium. The empirical implications of this equilibrium concept...

A new type of monetary policy rule designed to achieve both price and output stability has increasingly been recommended during the last business cycle expansion, prior to the 2007 crisis. This type of rule implies "active" reaction functions. Based on the new Keynesian approach to monetary...

"This paper considers the purposes that regulation and supervision of financial institutions are designed to serve. Historical experience with regulation and supervision is considered, and it is argued on the basis of that examination that a fairly 'light touch' in regulation is likely to...

"The issue opened up by the 'Ryanair Case' is a wide and important one. Interest groups often press for special treatment at the expense of others. People often agree to give it, because they think the group is deserving and because they have not thought through how the service is to be paid...