Financial stability and monetary policy

Business Economics - Financial conditions should be an important component of the Fed’s monetary policy reaction function. I don’t think financial stability is a goal that really...     

100 Jahre Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve System (Fed) was created in December 1913 when the Federal Reserve Act was signed. Since then, the Fed has become the most influential central bank in the world. This article gives an overview of the Fed’s history and its structure before evaluating the Fed’s monetary policy over the last 100 years. The main findings are that the last 100 years have shown that a central bank is useful for solving economic problems but that sometimes the central bank has created its own problems.     

How much inevitable US-Euro Area interdependence is there in monetary policy?

Against the backdrop of the present international financial and economic crisis this article looks into the issue of the interdependence of US monetary policy and monetary policy in the euro area. Is there a significant interdependence? If so, what is the nature and intensity of this interdependence? Has the ECB been infl uenced by the Fed or vice versa and to what degree? Has the relationship changed in recent years, and if so, in what direction?     

Government Lending and Monetary Policy

The financial dimension of the current contraction has brought a historic expansion in government lending to financial market participants, mostly through an expanding array of Federal Reserve (Fed) initiatives. This contrasts with the Fed's typical response to recent recessions that has been limited to adjustments of the target Fed funds rate. Restrictions on credit supply and declines of creditworthiness have both contributed to the contraction in lending, although the latter cause has probably been underestimated relative to the former. Fed and other government lending programs have targeted particular sectors, altering the allocation of credit across markets. Also, targeted credit programs contribute to the moral hazard problem inherent in the provision of government-funded credit or guarantees. An alternative approach to monetary policy where the Fed funds target is essentially zero is purchasing Treasuries, which is likely to have little effect on the relative credit spreads on different financial instruments. However, given that targeted lending has taken place, it is critical that regulatory mechanisms be installed so that government regulation matches the scope of government support. Also, targeted lending by the Fed is in effect fiscal policy. Is this a legitimate role for a central bank, or should such lending be subject to legislative approval, with the Fed's role limited to monetary stability?     

Threats to monetary policy independence: reasons to be concerned

Several legislative efforts are under way that aim to impose greater congressional oversight of and influence on the monetary policy decision making of the Federal Reserve System. Some of these initiatives might do little harm or even make marginal improvements. But others pose more serious threats to the operational independence of monetary policy. Proposals to require the Federal Reserve to frame monetary policy decisions according to a mathematical formula imply a concrete simplicity of policy that is inaccurate and misleading. And the reporting requirements associated with these proposals threaten to negate the major advantage of monetary policy as a countercyclical weapon—speed. Proposals to subject the non-monetary policy functions of the Fed to the appropriations process provide Congress with additional leverage that could be used to apply pressure to monetary policy decisions. For its part, the Fed should continue to increase transparency through more timely and complete release of relevant information and analysis. To best promote the objectives of stable prices and maximum employment, the operational independence of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision making needs to be preserved and protected.     

基于战略视角的农村金融区域供给考量

农村经济结构的调整、农业产业的升级引起金融供给结构的变化,农村金融必须从战略的高度考量区域金融供给的目标和重点,把握金融发展与改革的政策取向。在财政支农支出有限,城市带动农村的能力短期内不可能迅速提升的现实条件下,发展农业生产必须寻求国家财政金融政策的特殊支持,在用活各种金融政策与各种金融手段的合力上作文章。     

Integrating Financial Stability into Monetary Policy

The global financial crisis has highlighted the importance of integrating financial stability concerns into monetary policy. In the Bank of Canada’s view, monetary policy should be the last line of defence against threats to financial stability, behind the joint responsibility of borrowers and lenders, appropriate regulatory oversight, and sound macroprudential policies. Still, it is critical to understand the interlinkages between monetary policy and financial stability, given that the objectives are not always consistent. This implies the necessity of trade-offs. At the Bank of Canada, this is regarded as a problem of risk management rather than policy optimization. That is why the Bank operates a risk-management approach to monetary policy—keeping inflation control as its primary mission.     

Transmission of central bank communication to emerging economies: Evidence from the Korean stock market

This study analyzes the impact of US central bank communication on financial markets in emerging economies. We find that informal communication from the Fed positively influences the Korean stock market at a greater magnitude than the US stock market. The results show that the Korean stock market experienced higher excess return when Korea's monetary policy decisions are uncertain, suggesting that central bank communication in central countries could transmit to emerging economics through their monetary policy decisions and uncertainty. In addition, various portfolios and individual equities have a positive market risk-return tradeoff in the presence of Fed communication only.     

Keynote Speech: Federal Reserve Policy in the Post-Crisis Period

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) engaged in a series of extraordinary monetary policy actions in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 to support economic activity in the United States. Interest rates were lowered to their effective lower bound and the Fed’s balance sheet was greatly expanded through a series of large-scale asset purchase programs. As the U.S. economy has recovered, “normalization” of monetary policy (which will be data-dependent) has drawn closer. This article reviews some factors that may impact the post-normalization course of monetary policy.     

论开放经济条件下贸易政策对货币政策的影响

开放经济条件下，贸易政策对一国货币政策的实施具有重大影响：既给货币政策调节宏观经济目标增加了操作的难度，也对货币政策中介目标、传导机制、操作工具提出了挑战；而金融服务贸易自由化政策也会给货币政策的宏观环境带来巨大的影响：中国应以消除扭曲为着眼点，寻找二种政策的平衡点，加快改革，以使二者更好地为实现宏观经济目标服务。     

论金融稳定作为货币政策目标的依据

在目前的金融稳定问题危及经济发展的新经济环境下,各国基于现行货币政策目标体系的货币政策的有效性再次受到质疑.本文拟对在当前经济环境下将金融稳定纳入货币政策目标体系的货币政策的依据和影响进行论证.     

后金融危机时期中国货币政策选择——基于美国QE2经济后果的分析

＂二次量化宽松政策＂（简称QE2）是美联储在国内经济提振乏力、失业率居高不下以及世界经济复苏不平衡的背景下启动的。QE2或许能够使美国走出通缩的泥潭,也有可能催生资产泡沫,酝酿新的金融危机,但却无疑给世界经济,尤其是新兴市场国家的经济继续复苏蒙上了一层阴影,全球热钱将更加泛滥,世界经济秩序将遭到破坏,各国外汇储备将进一步缩水等。对此,我国中央银行货币政策必须加强与财政政策的配合,适时调整外汇储备资产结构,扩大本币结算合作,积极应对QE2的挑战。     

Emerging market corporate bond yields and monetary policy

I examine spillover of monetary policy on corporate bond yields. Emerging market corporate bond yields are positively associated with the federal funds rate. However, this positive relation is transmitted through the domestic policy rate. If domestic policy rates are held constant, the spillover of US monetary policy on corporate bond yields diminishes. This suggests that domestic policymakers face a tradeoff: if they leave their policy rate unchanged when the Fed hikes, this may have benign consequences for corporate bond yields. However, a higher US policy rate may lead to exchange rate depreciation for emerging market currencies and thus elevated debt burdens for their US dollar debtors. Alternatively, if the Fed hikes and policymakers follow suit, funding conditions for corporates worsen through higher yields.     

The unconventional monetary policy of the European Central Bank: Effectiveness and transmission analysis

Since the beginning of the financial crisis in summer 2007, the European Central Bank (ECB) has redirected traditional monetary policy, based on interest rates, to an unconventional monetary policy focused on the quantitative expansion of its balance sheet. In this context, the present paper aims to assess the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy instruments with regard to inflation and economic growth. To this end, the methodology is based on the estimation of a structural vector autoregressive model for the period 2007:Q1–2018:Q4, using four variables: EONIA, the total amount of assets on the ECB's balance sheet, the Eurozone inflation rate and the Eurozone economic growth rate. The results show a slight impact of the different balance sheet policies on inflation and economic activity behaviour, especially during the last year of the financial crisis. The robustness of these results is supported by the estimation of the same model replacing EONIA rates with shadow rates. Therefore, the results support the existence of monetary transmission for the period during which the unconventional monetary policy was developed as well as the effectiveness of the monetary policy adopted by the ECB in its commitment to price stability.     

Monetary Policy Independence under Flexible Exchange Rates: An Illusion?

I analyse whether countries with flexible exchange rates are able to pursue an independent monetary policy, as suggested by traditional theory. I use data for three Latin American countries with flexible exchange rates, inflation targeting and capital mobility – Chile, Colombia and Mexico – to investigate the extent to which Federal Reserve actions are translated into local central banks' policy rates. The results indicate that there is significant ‘policy contagion’ and that these countries tend to ‘import’ Fed policies. The degree of monetary policy independence is lower than what traditional models suggest.     

Richtungswechsel in den USA — Folgen der neuen Präsidentschaft für die Wirtschaft

Under US President Donald Trump, it can be expected that large tax cuts will be passed and public expenditure will be slightly limited. He correctly identified US deindustrialisation as one of the economy’s core problems. His proposed policy platforms, however, are unpredictable and most likely harmful for the US and world economy. Even more importantly, the new government repeatedly clashes with national and multilateral institutions and thereby challenges the heart of democratically based capitalism. At present, it is still open if Donald Trump’s Executive Orders on trade measures will be backed by the US Congress. In any case, the new US administration is obviously abandoning the general principle of free trade. But the announced changes in US trade and exchange rate policies are less of a fundamental break than is often argued, because cooperation in international economic policy has always been limited and unstable. Beyond trade policy, it seems to be the intention of the new US government to fundamentally change the course of the country with regard to the financial markets. With regard to its monetary policy, the administration’s current position is marked by its inherent inconsistency. However, the new government has several channels through which to influence and fundamentally change the working of the Fed in order to make it more obedient to its goals.     

地方政府举债的货币扩张效应及其政策协同

各国政府均会面临日益频繁出现的社会供需总量有悖于货币流通和金融稳定的诸多问题,为此财政与金融当局综合运用各种政策工具力求实现经济的稳定和协调发展。作为国家宏观调控的重要工具之一,地方政府举债如何避免政策冲突并最大化政策组合效力,是当前亟待深入研究的重要课题。本文通过构建包含金融摩擦、多期债券和举债规则等要素在内的NK-DSGE模型,深入剖析地方政府举债的货币效应和传导机制,并探讨其与货币政策协同配合的最佳模式。研究发现:(1)1%的地方政府举债冲击(债券久期=5年)会推动货币乘数上升0.39%,产生货币扩张效应,且债券久期越长,该扩张效应越大;(2)面对实体冲击和金融冲击,货币政策对地方政府举债采取适度从紧的反向协同配合,能有效抑制其货币扩张效应,更好地实现经济稳定和复苏;(3)对于久期较长的债券,提高地方政府举债规则的风险反应敏感度有利于增进福利。     

Central Banks and Macroeconomic Ambidexterity

The financial crisis of 2008 led to questions of whether monetary policy alone was sufficient to stabilise the macroeconomy and the financial system. The result has been an emphasis on macroprudential financial regulation to act in tandem with monetary policy. This article describes the emergence of macroprudential policy, how historical financial crises might have been mitigated had it been in place, and its ambidexterity with monetary policy as twin instruments for macroeconomic stabilisation.     

我国扩张性货币政策退出的策略分析

本文认为,当前的扩张性货币政策无法解决经济增长方式调整滞后和收入分配失衡等深层次矛盾,并蕴含着财政风险、金融风险与政策信誉风险,这决定了其退出的必然性.从就业、消费和民间投资三个指标来看,扩张性货币政策已逼近安全边界:在时机选择上,我国应先于欧美发达国家实施退出策略;在力度控制上,不仅要考虑经济数据,也要考虑集团利益的制衡;在工具选择上,应结合国情,有计划、有步骤地实施退出策略.另外,应注重与转变经济增长方式、财政刺激计划的退出及国际协调的配合.     

A new twist on an old framework: bounded price-level targeting

One of the notable macroeconomic developments of the last two decades has been the apparent decline in the so-called neutral real rate of interest (or r-star). The declining level of r-star has significantly reduced forecasts of the steady-state federal funds rate associated with “normalized” monetary policy. Because a lower steady-state policy rate implies a heightened probability of reaching the effective lower bound on the federal funds rate in the event of an economic downturn, a debate has opened among academics and policymakers about potential changes in Fed’s monetary policy framework that might ameliorate the lower bound problem. This paper introduces a variation of price-level targeting that satisfies a definition of price stability that requires the central bank to keep the price level within a pre-specified percentage of a pre-specified target path for all time horizons into the future. The framework, referred to as bounded price-level targeting, is compared to other proposed frameworks. The paper discusses the conditions under which bounded price-level targeting is consistent with other proposals.