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Central bank swaps offer dollar crisis lifeline to non-U.S. banks
Starting in late 2007, the Federal Reserve, in partnership with a few major foreign central banks, began offering central bank dollar liquidity swap lines as an important liquidity backstop.
Transfer payments, household savings play key roles in growing U.S. deficit
While recent levels of government borrowing have been high, private savings by U.S. residents have been elevated as well. As a result, overall borrowing for the entire U.S economy has been remarkably stable.
China debt overhang leads to rising share of ‘zombie’ firms
China’s private sector debt ballooned from 2008 through 2016, among the largest and most sustained such increases historically. Notably, this Chinese credit growth was financed entirely from domestic savings, unlike many other examples of rapid credit expansion elsewhere.
China manufacturing overcapacity boosts output, stagnation fears
Nearly 30 percent of China's industrial firms operate at a loss, up from 20 percent before the pandemic. The question arises: How can this be sustained?
AI is simultaneously aiding and replacing workers, wage data suggest
Artificial intelligence’s impact on the labor market will depend on whether the technology automates or augments worker tasks.
International comparisons show AI effect on productivity
Because AI use varies across countries, we can draw on international data to investigate the relationship between AI exposure and productivity growth at the sector level. The positive relationship in the U.S. fits a pattern visible among countries and appears related to high AI use.
Does it matter who finances the government's debt?
Government debt financed from domestic savings has a smaller effect on interest rates than government debt financed from foreign borrowing, and nations that are net international creditors can borrow more cheaply than net international debtors. These observations help explain massive government borrowing since 2008 while bond yields remained persistently low.
What Big Macs tell us about the disconnect between prices and exchange rates
The Economist's Big Mac Index is a measure of the real exchange rate that instead of measuring the price of a basket of goods and services, measures the price of one good, the McDonald's Big Mac. Recent empirical work finds that financial factors, and not monetary ones, underlay a very high correlation between nominal exchange rates and the Big Mac-based real exchange rate.
Emerging-Market Economies Face COVID-19 and a 'Sudden Stop' in Capital Flows
A rise in global risk at a time of investor risk aversion led to a rapid flight from emerging-market assets.
Risks Abound If China Uses Debt to Stimulate Economy from Current Downturn
The Chinese economy is losing steam. As China considers how to work through its difficulties, its chances of success may depend on how it finances the debt it incurs while attempting to boost economic activity.