When does a swap between private and public money leave the equilibrium allocation and price system unchanged? To answer this question, the paper sets up a generic model of money and liquidity which identifies sources of seignorage rents and liquidity bubbles. We derive sufficient conditions for...

We propose a simple model of the sovereign-bank diabolic loop, and establish four results. First, the diabolic loop can be avoided by restricting banks' domestic sovereign exposures relative to their equity. Second, equity requirements can be lowered if banks only hold senior domestic sovereign...

Etliche Beobachter sind der Ansicht, dass der Euro die aktuelle Krise nicht überleben wird. Anders die Ökonomen Markus Brunnermeier und Jean-Pierre Landau, ein Deutscher und ein Franzose, sowie der britische Wirtschaftshistoriker Harold James. Sie sehen ein Kernproblem des Euro in den...

This paper studies the full equilibrium dynamics of an economy with financial frictions. Due to highly non-linear amplification effects, the economy is prone to instability and occasionally enters volatile episodes. Risk is endogenous and asset price correlations are high in down turns. In an...