This paper provides an overview, using extensive documentary material, of developments in U.K. macroeconomic policy in the last half-century. Rather than focusing on well-known recent changes in policy arrangements (such as the introduction of inflation targeting in 1992 or central bank...

We attribute the success of China’s monetary-fiscal policies in producing 8.7% growth in 2009 to (1) the capital adequacy ratio requirement was not binding because the banks’ capital had not been reduced by losses on assets like subprime mortgages; (2) the initial fiscal position was sound,...

This paper explores the relationship between financial conditions and real economic activity in the euro area as a whole and for Greece in particular. We use a financial conditions index (see Angelopoulou et al., 2014) which is constructed using a wide range of prices, quantities, spreads and...

Argentina's once strong money and banking system deteriorated in the 1920s and was devastated by the Great Depression. Gold convertibility was suspended in December 1929, even before the crisis seriously damaged the core economies. Commonly, these events are seen as being driven by external real...

Banks and other financial companies use securitization to redistribute risk and increase liquidity by pooling and selling assets. This paper reviews the typical set-up of a securitization and its potential benefits and risks, including the tendency to concentrate risk in positions retained by...

Debt management can be used at low interest rates to lower bond yields, to provide bank assets and thereby help maintain broad money growth, or to save on interest payments. The US example in the 1930s and the recent Japanese case suggest that this tool was not fully exploited in either case

This paper seeks to understand the interplay between banks, bank regulation, sovereign default risk and central bank guarantees in a monetary union. I assume that banks can use sovereign bonds for repurchase agreements with a common central bank, and that their sovereign partially backs up any...

In 2008-2009, the US and the UK undertook quantitative easing to drive interest rates to near zero to combat the Global Financial Crisis, and China increased the growth rate of base money slightly. The resulting credit growth was very slight in US and UK but over 100% in China. The US and UK...

While the finance literature often equates government banks with political capture and capital misallocation, these banks can help mitigate financial shocks. This paper examines the role of Brazil's government banks in preventing a recession during the 2008-2010 financial crisis. Government...