Money and Credit
Banks and Non-Bank Finance (5/12/2010)
Banks may be able to expand money supply through fractional-reserve loans, but more and more loans and other financing are channeled through the non-bank finance sector.
Bond Free? (5/12/2010)
Treasury bonds are important instruments in regulating the money supply.
Bonds vs Stocks (1/23/2010)
Bonds and stocks are alternative means of business financing where bonds offer steady income while stocks offer potentially substantial capital gains to investors.
Bubble Economics (6/17/2010)
Run-away securitization of housing mortgages abetted by loose credit rating, shaky credit default swaps, and cheap money led to a huge housing bubble in the US.
Easy Money Is Anything but Easy (2/22/2012)
Easy money has unintended consequences.
Hong Kong Housing Boom (1/21/2010)
The low interest rates intended to stimulate the recessed US economy after the US housing bust in 2007 – 2009 have inadvertently led to a housing boom in Hong Kong when Hong Kong has to lower its interest rates to defend its dollar peg.
Hot Money (2/22/2012)
Speculative capital inflows have wreaked havoc in the destination economies.
Leveraging and Deleveraging (5/13/2010)
The leverage cycle could amplify business cycles apart from routine monetary policies via interest rates.
Liquidity Trap (6/17/2010)
Even with short-term interest rates close to zero, the US economy has failed to respond to cheap money because of anemic bank lending.
Money Multiplier (11/2/2011)
The creation process of money in a fractional-reserve banking system.
Money multiplier (transcript) (11/18/2010)
In a fractional reserve banking system, the Central Bank needs to print only a fraction of the total money supply. This fraction depends on the average circulation needs of the banking customers. The rest of the money supply could be created by banks through loans.
Quantitative Easing - How It Works (2/1/2012)
The Bank of England is injecting money directly into the economy to meet the inflation target.
Savers, Suckers? (5/12/2010)
Savers are collateral damage in the Fed’s attempt to resuscitate a comatose economy during the Great Recession.
The Yield Curve (1/23/2010)
The yield curve depicts how yields of Treasury debts vary with their borrowing durations.
Too Big to Fail (6/18/2010)
Some financial institutions could commit moral hazard by leveraging their implicit high credit ratings and tax-payer guarantees to load up on high-risk debts and obligations.
Under Water (1/22/2010)
Securitization of mortgage loans has fueled a US housing bubble whose bursting has put one in four mortgages under water.
Who Needs Casinos? (1/21/2010)
Unregulated credit default swaps (CDS) gave shaky coverage to subprime loans.
Who Rates the Raters? (6/17/2010)
Bond rating agencies found it hard to serve both the interests of bond investors and bond issuers since they were directly paid by bond issuers for favorable ratings.
You Got (Credit Card Solicitation) Mail! (1/21/2010)
The volume of credit card solicitations is an indicator of the cycle of credit expansion and credit contraction.