Search Results
Accounting for interest rate risk: Matching Fed assets to liabilities
The Fed has floating-rate liabilities as well as long-lived, zero-interest liabilities. A barbell of floating-rate and long-duration assets would best offset the interest rate risk from these liabilities. Investing in a more diversified mix of durations, while matching the average duration of assets, could be more practical than the barbell approach but would leave a substantial portion of interest rate risk unhedged.
Options for modernizing the FOMC’s operating target interest rate
The Federal Open Market Committee primarily adjusts the stance of monetary policy through its target range for the federal funds rate. We discuss whether the fed funds rate remains the right operating target for short-term interest rates.
A simple measure of monetary policy transmission
The Federal Open Market Committee adjusts the stance of monetary policy primarily by changing its target range for the federal funds rate. A new measure examines rate transmission efficacy across interest rates in a variety of money markets.
Options for reducing the size of the Fed’s balance sheet
Some observers have argued that the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is too large and complicates the central bank’s operations. We catalog options for reducing the Fed’s major liabilities, which help determine the size of the balance sheet, as well as a framework for assessing the costs and benefits of those options.
Expanded central clearing would increase Treasury market resilience
The smooth functioning of markets for Treasury securities is critically important to the U.S. economy. The federal government relies on the sale of Treasuries to finance essential services, and the Federal Reserve uses Treasury markets to implement monetary policy.
New office buildings rise on Texas skyline despite difficult market
Despite persistent remote work arrangements and high vacancies in existing office buildings, construction cranes erecting new office space continue to dot Texas skylines.
Anticipatory discount window stigma
Observers often assert that stigma—a perception that depositors, investors or others will penalize an institution for borrowing from the discount window—keeps banks from borrowing when they should, making the facilities less effective. Dallas Fed Senior Vice President Sam Schulhofer-Wohl argues that some harms of discount window stigma can be mitigated regardless of whether stigma itself persists.
Monetary policy implementation and the consolidated government balance sheet
This essay examines the trade-offs between different monetary policy implementation methods through the lens of the consolidated government balance sheet and income statement.
Working Paper
Monetary Policy Implementation with an Ample Supply of Reserves
Methods of monetary policy implementation continue to change. The level of reserve supply—scarce, abundant, or somewhere in between—has implications for the efficiency and effectiveness of an implementation regime. The money market events of September 2019 highlight the need for an analytical framework to better understand implementation regimes. We discuss major issues relevant to the choice of an implementation regime, using a parsimonious framework and drawing from the experience in the United States since the 2007–09 financial crisis. We find that the optimal level of reserve supply ...
Working Paper
Monetary Policy Implementation with Ample Reserves
We offer a parsimonious model of the reserve demand to study the tradeoffs associated with various monetary policy implementation frameworks. Prior to the 2007–09 financial crisis, many central banks supplied scarce reserves to execute their interest-rate policies. In response to the crisis, central banks undertook quantitative-easing policies that greatly expanded their balance sheets and, by extension, the amount of reserves they supplied. When the crisis and its aftereffects passed, central banks were in a position to choose a framework that has reserves that are (1) abundant—by ...