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Journal Article
Federal Reserve: The Fed's Dollar Liquidity Swap Lines
The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and fear and uncertainty permeated daily life. The global economy was not immune from the panic. Dollars were quickly becoming scarce: Global trading of the currency ground to a halt, and since dollars were about the safest asset available, those who had them were not about to part with them. On top of that, a spike in demand by those seeking the safety of dollars led to a rapid increase in price. But the dollar was the world's dominant currency and medium of exchange. Without it, banks around the world wouldn't be ...
Working Paper
The Evolution of the Federal Reserve Swap Lines since 1962
In this paper, we describe the evolution of the Federal Reserve?s swap lines from their inception in 1962 as a mechanism to forestall claims on US gold reserves under Bretton Woods to their use during the Great Recession as a means of extending emergency dollar liquidity. We describe the Federal Reserve?s successes and failures. We argue that swaps calm crisis situations by both supplementing foreign countries? dollar reserves and by signaling central-bank cooperation. We show how swaps exposed the Federal Reserve to conditionality and raised fears that they bypassed the Congressional ...
Discussion Paper
Do the Fed’s International Dollar Liquidity Facilities Affect Offshore Dollar Funding Markets and Credit?
At the outbreak of the pandemic, in March 2020, the Federal Reserve implemented a suite of facilities, including two associated with international dollar liquidity—the central bank swap lines and the Foreign International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) repo facility—to provide dollar liquidity. This post discusses recent evidence showing the contributions of these facilities to financial and economic stability, highlighting evidence from recent research by Goldberg and Ravazzolo (December 2021).