BIS’s latest hunt for Zombie (firms)

In the latest BIS Quarterly Review, researchers Ryan Banerjee and Boris Hofmann consolidated some of the earlier research to illustrate the problem of zombie firms. They argued that the rise of zombies predated the 2008 financial crisis, and has since been dragging down the productivity of the real economy.

Why the Fed announces “not-QE” Treasuries purchase program?

Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it will start purchasing Treasury bills from Oct 15 (Tuesday) until at least the second quarter of next year.

Planet Money Book—a long-time listener, first-time reader’s review

Planet Money Book is an excellent introduction to economics and finance and reminded me why it is good to have Planet Money in our life.

Bernanke on Trump’s Fiscal Policy 

Ben Bernanke has a new blog post on Brookings. The focus of the post is to explain "the large difference between the reactions of the Fed and the markets to the change in fiscal prospects since the election"

Is there a Zero Lower Bound?

In a recent research, four European Central Bank economists found that negative interest rate policy in the eurozone can encourage banks to increase lending and encourage cooperations to increase investments. That is, contrary to what macroeconomics models usually predict, interest rate policy can still has stimulative effect even the zero lower bound is reached.

What is Payment on Reserves Process?

The payment on reserve process proposed by Robert Hall and Ricardo Reis is a way of remunerating reserves which would give the central bank...

When will Hong Kong’s Interest Rates Align With the US?

If you think the interest rate gap between Hong Kong and US is a market phenomenon, think again. HK Monetary Authority has a much bigger role than you think

Central Bank’s Balance Sheet and the Rise of Reserves

The above figure shows the balance sheet of four major central banks from 2005 to 2015. Above the horizontal axis is the asset side...

Should Federal Reserve use scenario analysis to handle trade war uncertainty?

The Fed is currently in a "wait and see" mode in deciding what is the reaction to Trump's trade policy. But is it possible for the Fed to be a bit more proactive than merely saying "we will be able to update you further when we know more details"? Enters scenario analysis.

Nonbank Lending

In their recent working paper "Nonbank Lending", economists Sergey Chernenko, Isil Erel, and Robert Prilmeier provided an insightful overview of the sources and terms of private debt financing during the post-crisis period.

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