Journal Article
The truth about hedge funds
Osterberg, William P.; Thomson, James B. (1999-05)
Do hedge funds help or hurt the financial markets in which they operate? The highly publicized troubles of Long Term Capital Management have once again focused the attention of policymakers and the press on the hedge fund industry and the cry for its regulation. This Economic Commentary refutes some of the commonly held myths about hedge funds and examines the rationale for regulating them.
Economic Commentary , Issue May

Journal Article
LBOs and conflict of interest
Osterberg, William P. (1989-08)
A discussion of leveraged buyouts and their dramatic impact on traditional corporate structure and relationships among stockholders, bondholders, and employees.
Economic Commentary , Issue Aug

Journal Article
Network externalities: the catch-22 of retail payments innovations
Osterberg, William P.; Thomson, James B. (1998-02)
An investigation of one of the reasons why electronic payments have not yet supplanted cash and checks in retail transactions: Consumers willingness to use an innovation depends on the number of merchants who have already adopted it, and merchants willingness to invest in the innovation depends on the number of consumers who are already using it.
Economic Commentary , Issue Feb

Journal Article
The Japanese edge in investment: the financial side
Osterberg, William P. (1987-03)
An argument that the Japanese investment advantage over the United States results largely from lower pre-tax required rates of return and lower agency costs of debt in Japan, rather than from a less-burdensome tax code.
Economic Commentary , Issue Mar

Journal Article
Why intervention rarely works
Humpage, Owen F.; Osterberg, William P. (2000-02)
Foreign-exchange-market intervention is generally ineffective when undertaken independent of monetary policy. But when undertaken as a goal of monetary policy, exchange-rate management can compromise price stability. This Economic Commentary explains the difficulties of implementing an intervention policy.
Economic Commentary , Issue Feb

Journal Article
How important are U.S. capital flows into Mexico?
Osterberg, William P. (1994-12)
An analysis of the often-understated role of capital flows from the United States to Mexico following passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in late 1993, examining their implications for the Mexican economy.
Economic Commentary , Issue Dec

Journal Article
Stock-market gyrations and investment
Osterberg, William P. (1987-12)
An analysis of the relationship between stock-market gyrations and business fixed investment, using the q theory (the ratio of the market value of financial liabilities to the replacement value of physical assets).
Economic Commentary , Issue Dec , Pages 1-4

Journal Article
The Exchange Stabilization Fund: how it works
Osterberg, William P.; Thomson, James B. (1999-12)
The increasingly controversial Exchange Stabilization Fund is used to influence the international value of the U.S. dollar and to provide aid to foreign countries. The debate surrounding the Fund will become more informed, the authors suggest, when observers understand how to calculate the total amount of resources available to the Fund. This Economic Commentary explains how the Fund's balance sheet figures must be adjusted to produce an accurate account of those resources.
Economic Commentary , Issue Dec

Journal Article
Bank notes and stored-value cards: stepping lightly into the past
Osterberg, William P.; Thomson, James B. (1998-09)
Like the bank notes that circulated in this country from 1863 to 1913, stored-value cards substitute the liabilities of private banks for government and central-bank liabilities. This shift may have important implications for the federal budget, the money supply, and monetary policy.
Economic Commentary , Issue Sep

Journal Article
Do more banking offices mean more banking services?
Osterberg, William P.; Sterk, Sandy A. (1997-12)
An argument that recent growth in the number of banking offices (head offices plus their branches) does not necessarily mean that banking services have increased.
Economic Commentary , Issue Dec