This article asserts that, in dealing with the 2007-2009 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) has placed its role as monetary agency and de facto steward of the market for U.S. Treasury debt ahead of its statutory responsibility for ensuring the soundness of the private banks. This...

The beginning of the most important elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) is an opportune time to review the history of health care reform in the United States, the issues involved in the development of the ACA and its prospects. Efforts for reform trace back...

Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) are government-chartered, special purpose corporations. They have been created to advance foster funding in a number of areas including housing, education and agriculture. Over the past 2 decades, the privatization has been proposed. There are many...

This Policy Brief provides an overview of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and perspective on some of its key provisions affecting health insurance. Following a synopsis of the main problems that confront U.S. health care and insurance, it considers the extent to which the Affordable Care Act (ACA)...

The Optional Federal Chartering (OFC) proposal introduced in the last session of Congress may have been the right bill for the introduction of federal regulation of the insurance industry at the turn of the 20th century. However, the current OFC proposal shows its 19th century roots as it merely...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicare Part D had the same rocky start. Both were criticized as unworkable and unsustainable. Yet both have similar structures. They offer individuals a choice of competing health plans, provide subsidies to make coverage affordable, and impose penalties for...

This study uses data from the 2002 and 2004 Health and Retirement Study to investigate the impact that health problems have on the financial strain of older Americans. Two-stage probit models are estimated for a series of financial ratio guidelines that take into account household solvency,...

This paper reexamines the determinants of credit default swaps (CDS) spreads in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific markets with a new data set using linear regressions. These determinants are categorized into two groups: firm level and macroeconomic variables. We also include two non-traditional...

The empirical literature identifying gains from financial innovation to financial institution stockholders is sparse. The literature identifying financial firms’ contributions to stockholder value resulting from long term commitment to innovation is, to our knowledge, nonexistent. Several...

Because of the dynamic inconsistency problem in optimal policies of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) systems, parametric reforms tend to be unfair in terms of generational justice and could be inefficient in terms of optimal level of consumption. As long as there are adverse shocks, the planner has to...