Traditionally, individual states have shared responsibility for regulating the US insurance industry. The Dodd-Frank Act changes this by tasking the Federal Reserve with regulating the systemic risks that particularly large insurance organizations might pose and assigning the regulation of...

Throughout the past three decades of fast growth, China has undergone tremendous structural changes in its economy. There has been significant and continuing industrialization, urbanization and integration into the world economy. The financial system has also undergone major changes, with the...

Why should the United States engage in broad reform of its health care? Because it must. When should health care reform begin? Yesterday would be best, but today for sure. And how should reform be done? It should focus on continuous incremental changes to the cultural, legal, and regulatory...

Finance is a branch of economics that deals with budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, lending, insuring, diversifying, and matching. In setting standards of financial literacy we ought to make sure they are consistent with the basic principles taught in economics courses. In section I of...

S. 40, the National Insurance Act of 2007, requires the development of a system of Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) for federally chartered insurers. This paper discusses the issues associated with developing a system of PCA and makes recommendations regarding its structure. First, the paper...

Medicare is America’s second largest entitlement program and this year will account for 14 percent of the Federal budget, 3.2 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is growing rapidly so that by the end of the Medicare Trustees 75-year projection period, 2080, the Medicare...

We review the history of financial literacy, as it applies to public company audit committees; we report on a financial literacy quiz that we have given to over 1,400 members of corporate boards, not all audit committee members. We develop a classification to score the potential of corporate...

It is now widely recognized that the interest rate risks embedded in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (F&F) retained mortgage portfolios create a serious threat to the US financial system. This paper evaluates proposals to control the interest rate risk embedded in these portfolios. The analysis...

Research seeking to understand financial literacy and to enhance it through training or education is receiving greater attention and emphasis from policymakers. Unfortunately, relatively little of this research has focused on insurance products and consumers. This policy brief reviews what is...

China’s major imbalances include trade and capital account surpluses and a large annual build-up of international reserves. China has a capital account surplus reinforcing the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, mainly U.S. dollar-denominated assets. Usually, a sustainable fixed or...