The author illustrates the extent to which ensuing regulatory changes conform to the prescriptions of Perspectives on Safe and Sound Banking. He probes whether relatively untested regulatory strictures, such as prompt corrective action, will prevail when banking is heavily stressed. He then...

Homeownership has long been a cherished American goal, but many now find that homeownership is no longer possible. The median household income of potential first-time homebuyers is now estimated to be only three-quarters that required to afford the median-priced starter home. As a consequence,...

This paper uses data from a new, large survey to estimate the demand for financial services of low-and-moderate income households. We show that socio-economic characteristics have significant and importantly different effects on the choices about which bank accounts to have. In particular,...

This article assesses the extent to which government-administered financial shocks and lower interest rates can account for the massive accumulation of bank excess reserves in the Great Depression. Both factors are shown to be statistically significant. Financial shocks did exert astatistically...

Over the past decade, the banking industry has undergone rapid consolidation; indeed, on average, for the past three years there were more than two bank mergers every business day. Before the 1990s, most bank mergers involved banks with less than $1 billion in assets; more recently, even the...