Innovative Federal Reserve Policies During The Great Financial Crisis

This book, Innovative Federal Policies During the Great Financial Crisis, contains discussions of unconventional monetary policies, policy changes to address systemic and payments systems risks, new macroprudential policies, the 'stretching' of the financial safety net, changes in the Fed's liquidity funding facility (the discount window), use of the Fed's balance sheet as a tool of monetary policy, and alternative means to deal with real-estate asset bubbles and potential financial instability. The 10 chapters in this book offer a unique analysis of several innovative approaches by the Federal Reserve that contributed to the stabilization of the US economy following the Great Recession. What unique policies were implemented? Toward what goal? Were they effective? Were there unintended consequences? Additionally, but less thoroughly, events in the Euro market are also discussed, and policies (and their impact) of the ECB are critiqued. Based on papers presented at the 91st Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International Meetings in Portland, Oregon, 2016, Innovative Federal Policies During the Great Financial Crisis adds significantly to the debate over why innovative or unconventional policies were needed, how they were implemented and how effective they were.

During the recent financial crisis, the Fed implemented a series of extraordinary and unconventional policies to alleviate the impact of the crisis on financial markets and the economy. This paper examines the effects of these policies on broad financial market conditions. The Fed was more likely to initiate or expand new programs when financial market conditions were tighter than usual and economic conditions deteriorating. The Fed¿s policies improved broad financial market conditions significantly at announcement and that the improvements were associated primarily with program initiations and expansions. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find publication.

ÔHasan CšmertÕs timely book reaches us during the prolonged conditions of the global great recession. By providing a thorough and detailed econometric analysis of the institutional and historical developments of the hegemonic leader of capitalism, Cšmert reveals that the simplistic monetary policy tools of the central banks of the so-called Òmodern great moderationÓ era are over, and we are now at cross-roads of a paradigmatic shift. CšmertÕs book suggests itself as one of the first leading examples of this shift.Õ Ð Erini Yeldan, Yasar University, Turkey ÔThis provocative book shows that the Federal Reserve has, in the last four decades, gradually lost influence over credit and financial markets. This argument, supported by institutional analysis and econometric tests, has two explosive implications: first, Federal Reserve policy did not cause the subprime crisis; second, central banks no longer have instruments for intervening in economies whose growth they are now expected to restore. Anyone concerned with the future of global capitalism should consider ComertÕs work as a matter of urgency.Õ Ð Gary Dymski, Leeds University Business School, UK and University of California, Riverside, US ÔPrior to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, mainstream economists celebrated a ÒNew ConsensusÓ on monetary policy in which independent central banks were assumed able to bring about a ÒGreat ModerationÓ of low inflation and high economic growth by manipulating short-term interest rates. In this important and interesting book, Hasan Cšmert demonstrates convincingly, through institutional analysis and econometrics, that central banks lost control of the price and quantity of credit starting two decades before this celebration. He shows that central banks themselves, through their support of financial market deregulation and globalization, helped bring about both monetary policy impotence and the global crisis. ItÕs a must-read.Õ Ð James Crotty, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, there has been increasing debate over the appropriate role of central banks in mitigating economic disaster. This timely volume combines detailed historical and econometric analyses to explore the profound changes that occurred within the US financial system from the 1980s to the present, and shows how these changes have affected the US economy. Hasan Cšmert demonstrates how dramatic shifts in the financial system undermined the ability of the US Federal Reserve to control the price and quantity of credit. He identifies several key factors that facilitated this loss of control, including deregulation, rapid financial innovations, increased financial integration and a number of policy decisions implemented within the Federal Reserve itself. Through a combination of several methods, including historical and institutional analyses, descriptive statistics, simulation and econometric techniques, the author provides a well-rounded and vitally important picture of the US financial system and offers insightful policy recommendations for the future. Students, professors and policymakers with an interest in economics, finance, banking and monetary policy will no doubt find this book a fascinating and invaluable resource.

This new book will provide an extensive analysis of the role of the Federal Reserve in contributing to the crisis through its low interest-rate policy during 2002-2006, and in dealing with the crisis under Bernanke with his aggressive and innovative policies implemented in the wake of the Lehman collapse in September 2008.

21st Century Monetary Policy takes readers inside the Federal Reserve, explaining what it does and why. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve deployed an extraordinary range of policy tools that helped prevent the collapse of the financial system and the U.S. economy. Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues lent directly to U.S. businesses, purchased trillions of dollars of government securities, pumped dollars into the international financial system, and crafted a new framework for monetary policy that emphasized job creation. These strategies would have astonished Powell’s late-20th-century predecessors, from William McChesney Martin to Alan Greenspan, and the advent of these tools raises new questions about the future landscape of economic policy. In 21st Century Monetary Policy, Ben S. Bernanke—former chair of the Federal Reserve and one of the world’s leading economists—explains the Fed’s evolution and speculates on its future. Taking a fresh look at the bank’s policymaking over the past seventy years, including his own time as chair, Bernanke shows how changes in the economy have driven the Fed’s innovations. He also lays out new challenges confronting the Fed, including the return of inflation, cryptocurrencies, increased risks of financial instability, and threats to its independence. Beyond explaining the central bank’s new policymaking tools, Bernanke also captures the drama of moments when so much hung on the Fed’s decisions, as well as the personalities and philosophies of those who led the institution.

Provides an in-depth overview of the Federal Reserve System, including information about monetary policy and the economy, the Federal Reserve in the international sphere, supervision and regulation, consumer and community affairs and services offered by Reserve Banks. Contains several appendixes, including a brief explanation of Federal Reserve regulations, a glossary of terms, and a list of additional publications.

Some economic events are so major and unsettling that they “change everything.” Such is the case with the financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 and is still a drag on the world economy. Yet enough time has now elapsed for economists to consider questions that run deeper than the usual focus on the immediate causes and consequences of the crisis. How have these stunning events changed our thinking about the role of the financial system in the economy, about the costs and benefits of financial innovation, about the efficiency of financial markets, and about the role the government should play in regulating finance? In Rethinking the Financial Crisis, some of the nation’s most renowned economists share their assessments of particular aspects of the crisis and reconsider the way we think about the financial system and its role in the economy. In its wide-ranging inquiry into the financial crash, Rethinking the Financial Crisis marshals an impressive collection of rigorous and yet empirically-relevant research that, in some respects, upsets the conventional wisdom about the crisis and also opens up new areas for exploration. Two separate chapters–by Burton G. Malkiel and by Hersh Shefrin and Meir Statman – debate whether the facts of the financial crisis upend the efficient market hypothesis and require a more behavioral account of financial market performance. To build a better bridge between the study of finance and the “real” economy of production and employment, Simon Gilchrist and Egan Zakrasjek take an innovative measure of financial stress and embed it in a model of the U.S. economy to assess how disruptions in financial markets affect economic activity—and how the Federal Reserve might do monetary policy better. The volume also examines the crucial role of financial innovation in the evolution of the pre-crash financial system. Thomas Philippon documents the huge increase in the size of the financial services industry relative to real GDP, and also the increasing cost per financial transaction. He suggests that the finance industry of 1900 was just as able to produce loans, bonds, and stocks as its modern counterpart—and it did so more cheaply. Robert Jarrow looks in detail at some of the major types of exotic securities developed by financial engineers, such as collateralized debt obligations and credit-default swaps, reaching judgments on which make the real economy more efficient and which do not. The volume’s final section turns explicitly to regulatory matters. Robert Litan discusses the political economy of financial regulation before and after the crisis. He reviews the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which he considers an imperfect but useful response to a major breakdown in market and regulatory discipline. At a time when the financial sector continues to be a source of considerable controversy, Rethinking the Financial Crisis addresses important questions about the complex workings of American finance and shows how the study of economics needs to change to deepen our understanding of the indispensable but risky role that the financial system plays in modern economies.