Search Results
Journal Article
President's perspective
Mexico's long-awaited energy reform should, if carefaully and deliberately implemented, increase oil and gas production and reverse a nine-year trend of declining output.
Discussion Paper
Reframing the Debate about Payday Lending
Except for the ten to twelve million people who use them every year, just about everybody hates payday loans. Their detractors include many law professors, consumer advocates, members of the clergy, journalists, policymakers, and even the President! But is all the enmity justified? We show that many elements of the payday lending critique—their “unconscionable” and “spiraling” fees and their “targeting” of minorities—don’t hold up under scrutiny and the weight of evidence. After dispensing with those wrong reasons to object to payday lenders, we focus on a possible right ...
Journal Article
Over-the-counter swaps – before and after reform
Now that the main elements of the new regulations can be described, let?s see how a simplified trade would be typically carried out by a fictional set of institutions both before and after the reform.3 First Bank is a large dealer bank that buys and sells securities and derivatives. High Yield (HY) is a mutual fund that has a large portfolio of junk bonds. HY wants to hedge against the risk of a downturn in the junk bond market.
Journal Article
Regulating the raters: Key provisions in proposed reforms
Credit rating organizations such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's have been counted on to provide investors with impartial assessments of companies' creditworthiness, and some have relied on CROs instead of due diligence. Reforms are needed but if regulators have rule-writing authority, they can use flexibility and creativity rather than just legislation.
Journal Article
Banking policy review: over-the-counter swaps — before and after reform
Regulations governing over-the-counter derivatives trading have moved much of the action to transparent, centralized exchanges. Michael Slonkosky describes a typical trade before and after the new rules.