Liberty Street Economics

Look for our next post on June 20.

April 11, 2016

Supervising Large, Complex Financial Institutions: Defining Objectives and Measuring Effectiveness

Last month the New York Fed held a conference on supervising large, complex financial institutions. The event featured presentations of empirical and theoretical research by economists here, commentary by academic researchers, and panel discussions with policymakers and senior supervisors. The conference was motivated by the recognition that supervision is distinct from regulation, but that the difference between them is often not well understood. The discussion focused on defining objectives for supervising the large, complex financial companies that figure so prominently in our financial system and ways of measuring how effectively supervision achieves these goals. This post summarizes the key themes from the conference and introduces the more in-depth posts that will follow in this blog series.

Just Released: U.S. Economy in a Snapshot—More Data for More Charts

We launched the U.S. Economy in a Snapshot in June 2015 to provide interested readers with a monthly update of current economic and financial developments. Combining charts and summary points, the packet covers a range of topics that include labor and financial markets, the behavior of consumers and firms, survey responses, and the global economy.

Posted at 10:05 am in Financial Markets, Macroeconomics | Permalink
April 8, 2016

Reconciling Survey‑ and Market‑Based Expectations for the Policy Rate

In our previous post [LINK], we showed that the gap between the market-implied path for the federal funds rate and the survey-implied mean expectations for the federal funds rate from the Survey of Primary Dealers (SPD) and the Survey of Market Participants (SMP) narrowed from the December survey to the January survey.

April 7, 2016

How Do Survey‑ and Market‑Based Expectations of the Policy Rate Differ?

Over the past year, market pricing on interest rate derivatives linked to the federal funds rate have suggested a significantly lower expected path of the policy rate than responses to the New York Fed’s Survey of Primary Dealers (SPD) and Survey of Market Participants (SMP). However, this gap narrowed considerably from December 2015 to January 2016, before widening slightly at longer horizons in March. This post argues that the narrowing between December and January was mostly the result of survey respondents placing greater weight on lower rate outcomes, while the subsequent widening in February and March likely reflects an increased demand for insurance against states of the world where the policy rate remains at very low levels.

April 6, 2016

Bank Regulation and Bank Complexity

U.S. Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) currently control about 3,000 subsidiaries that provide community housing services—such as building low-income housing units, maintaining shelters, and providing housing services to the elderly and disabled.

April 4, 2016

Are Stress Tests Still Informative?

Since the height of the financial crisis, each year the Federal Reserve has disclosed the results of its stress tests, and stress testing has become “business as usual” in the U.S. banking industry. In this post, we assess whether market participants find supervisory stress test disclosures informative. After half a decade, do the disclosures still contain information that the market finds valuable?

Posted at 7:00 am in Financial Institutions | Permalink
April 1, 2016

Hey, Economist! What Did You Make of “The Big Short”?

The Big Short has been making a big splash this year, racking up five Academy Award nominations and taking home the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

March 30, 2016

The Effect of Exchange Rate Shocks on Domestic Prices

Mary Amiti, Oleg Itskhoki, and Jozef Konings Changes in exchange rates directly affect import prices. Since the beginning of 2014, the U.S. dollar has strengthened by 17 percent against the currencies of its major trading partners while import prices have fallen by 4 percent. The pass-through from exchange rates into import prices in the United […]

March 28, 2016

How the Fed Smoothed Quarter‑End Volatility in the Fed Funds Market

The federal funds market is an important source of short-term funding for U.S. banks.

March 25, 2016

Happy Fifth Birthday, LSE!

When we launched our research blog five years ago this week, we didn’t expect to set any internet traffic records while writing about economics. Still, we saw that a blog would be a good way to build familiarity with our research and policy analysis, and to share the expertise of our staff when it’s relevant to issues in the public eye. As I said back at the birth, our goal was to deliver “lively, clear, and analytically sound” posts and, in that, I think we have succeeded.

Posted at 7:02 am in DSGE, Macroeconomics | Permalink
About the Blog

Liberty Street Economics features insight and analysis from New York Fed economists working at the intersection of research and policy. Launched in 2011, the blog takes its name from the Bank’s headquarters at 33 Liberty Street in Manhattan’s Financial District.

The editors are Michael Fleming, Andrew Haughwout, Thomas Klitgaard, and Asani Sarkar, all economists in the Bank’s Research Group.

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