This paper investigates the impact of macroeconomic and monetary news on U.S. Government bond rate level and volatility. Specifically, it checks if these news affect differently interest rate level and volatility during "stable" and "unstable" periods. "Unstable" periods correspond to the...

This paper is the basis for the Guest Columnist article in the Tuesday, November 11, 2008 issue of the Kansas City Star Business Weekly. Because of space limitations, the published newspaper column had to be shortened from the original and unfortunately did not include either of the two...

This article shows that the "risk premium" shock in Smets and Wouters (2007) can be interpreted as a structural shock to the demand for safe and liquid assets such as short-term US Treasury securities. Several implications of this interpretation are discussed.

The European Central Bank (ECB), as part of its forward-looking strategy, needs high-quality financial market statistical indicators as a means to facilitate evidence-based and sound decision-making. Such indicators include timely market intelligence and information to gauge investors'...

We present an incomplete markets model to understand the costs and benefits of increasing government debt in a low interest rate environment. Higher risk increases the demand for safe assets, lowering the natural rate of interest below zero, constraining monetary policy at the zero lower bound,...

During and after the Great Recession of 2008-09, conventional monetary policy in the United States and many other advanced economies was constrained by the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates. Several central banks implemented large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) programs, more...

Walter Bagehot's putative principles of lending in liquidity crises - to lend freely to solvent banks with good collateral but at penalty rates - have served as a theoretical basis for thinking about the lender of last resort for close to 100 years, while simultaneously providing justification...

The objective of this study is to analyze current and likely future impacts of the issuance of New Turkish lira (YTL) denominated borrowing instruments by many global financial institutions around the major financial centres. These bonds are strong source of evidence for international confidence...

Among the countries currently considering issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), including nearly all of G20, there is a strong preference for a retail CBDC made available to the general public through private intermediaries. This Policy Brief sheds light on the technical complexities...