Monetary policy became more difficult to characterize during and after the mortgage foreclose and financial crises because of a shift to a new credit policy focused on private sector credit and that relies on traditional commercial banking strategies. The new credit policy broke the tight link...

Our country has been through economic Hell the past three years. (See the report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, www.fcic.gov.) The turmoil that began in 2008 with the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and continued with the failure of American International Group (AIG),...

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...

House prices have risen quite sharply since 2000. Coming on the heels of a stock market crash, many analysts have raised the specter of collapse in house prices and have conjured up dire consequences from such a collapse. This article examines the extent of the house price rise, whether there...

Changes in the general level of prices and inflation have profound effects on asset prices. There are several reasons for these effects and the influence differs depending on the source of the inflation and whether it is expected or not. To understand these effects, it is important to clarify...

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...

Morocco has a distinguished reputation for opening the economy, privatization and for increasing the role of the private sector in economic development. The nation has also had well known success in achieving a high degree of price stability through a fixed and credible exchange rate that was...

The U.S. mortgage loan foreclosure crisis has been called “the worst financial crisis since the great depression.” 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 directly....

On November 12, 1999, President Clinton signed the most significant piece of financial services regulation to be enacted since the Great Depression, at least up to that time. When the Financial Service Modernization Act of 1999, better known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), was signed, the...