The events following Lehman's failure in 2008 and the current turmoil emanating from Europe highlight the structural vulnerabilities of short-term credit markets and the role of central banks as back-stop liquidity providers to financial markets. The Federal Reserve's response to financial...

As much as half of the US population would 'benefit' financially from filing for bankruptcy. These benefits are in the tens of thousands of dollars. Then, why don't they file? Amongst the financial decisions that individuals make, this ranks as one of the largest in magnitude. Using a...

As Chari et al (2008) point out in a recent paper, aggregate trends are very hard to interpret. They examine four common claims about the impact of financial sector phenomena on the economy and conclude that all four claims are myths. We argue that to evaluate these popular claims, one needs to...