The credit risk exposure of the German banking system is growing again after the 2009 peak and its subsequent reduction. This column comments it through the lens of the Target2 net balances in connection with the capital flows experienced by the Eurozone (EZ) balance of payments. Several aspects...

We introduce external risks, in the form of shocks to the level and volatility of world interest rates, into a small open economy model subject to the risk of sudden stops—large recessions together with abrupt reversals in capital inflows| and characterize optimal macroprudential policy in...

Accommodative monetary policy during the financial crisis was instrumental in preventing a deeper recession. Views differ, however, on how long such measures should be kept in place. At the heart of this debate is the notion that a protracted period of policy accommodation could create...

This paper examines the fiscal and monetary policy options available to China as a sovereign currency-issuing nation operating in a dollar standard world. We first summarize a number of issues facing China, including the possibility of slower growth, global imbalances, and a number of domestic...

This paper reviews recent developments in US monetary policy and then discusses some possible reforms that might be considered to modify the behavior of the Federal Reserve System. Since its creation a century ago, the Federal Reserve System has grown from a narrowly defined central bank...

Mit dem anstehenden Staatsanleihen-Kaufprogramm 'Outright Monetary Transactions' (OMT) der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) in Verbindung mit dem kürzlich eingesetzten Europäischen Stabilitätsmechanismus (ESM) hat das Thema 'monetäre Staatsfinanzierung' viel Aufmerksamkeit erfahren (z.B....

This paper arms central bank policy makers with ways to think about interactions between financial stability and monetary policy. We frame the issue of whether to integrate financial stability into monetary policy operating rules by appealing to the observation that in actual economies financial...