In this article we analyze financial and economic circumstances associated with the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the global financial turmoil that has led to severe crises in many countries. We suggest that the level of cross-border holdings of long-term securities between the United States...

President Pianalto described the turmoil in financial markets, as well as the Federal Reserve’s actions to address the situation.

In a speech at the Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Sandra Pianalto discussed consolidated supervision, an important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of regulatory reform. She also described the criteria that she...

We modify the Diamond-Dybvig model studied in Green and Lin to incorporate a self-interested banker who has a private record-keeping technology. A public record-keeping device does not exist. We find that there is a trade-off between sophisticated contracts that possess relatively good...

The authors seek to measure the potential benefit of reducing the likelihood of economic crises (defined as Depression-style collapses of economic activity). Based on the observed frequency of Depression-like events, they estimate this likelihood to be approximately one in every 83 years for the...

What are the economic effects of an interest rate cut when an economy is in the midst of a financial crisis? Under what conditions will a cut stimulate output and employment, and raise welfare? Under which will it have the opposite effects? The authors answer these questions in a general class...

Systemic banking and financial crises invariably result in the transfer of a large volume of distressed financial assets into the hands of the government, which must later dispose of them. The fiscal and economic costs of the crisis and the speed of recovery depend on how effectively the...

This paper summarizes the academic literature on the Panic of 1907 in the United States. Despite over 100 years of separation, research by financial economic historians continues to uncover important data and underexploited connections between institutions to improve present day understanding of...

The paper examines the New York Clearing House (NYCH) as a lender of last resort by looking at clearing-house-loan-certificate borrowing during five banking panics of the National Banking Era (1863–1913). In that system, adequate aggregate liquidity provision was passive and dependent upon...

The authors evaluate the Friedman-Schwartz hypothesis--that a more accommodative monetary policy could have greatly reduced the severity of the Great Depression. To do this, they first estimate a dynamic, general equilibrium model using data from the 1920s and 1930s. Although the model includes...