Federal Reserve System
‘Unprecedented' US rate normalisation is global economy's biggest challenge, says IMF
Overshooting interest rates prompted by Fed taper may expose substantial financial weaknesses in both advanced and emerging countries, warns stability report; shadow banking of particular concern
Chorus for Fed taper grows louder
Sandra Pianalto dismisses concerns over labour force participation and argues economic data was and is strong enough to warrant taper; Charles Plosser says Fed has damaged its credibility
Fed's Stein seeks right regulatory mix on fire-sales for SFTs
Fed governor Jeremy Stein calls for new mix of rules to ensure ‘fire sale’ of securities financing transactions work at the system-wide level
Kocherlakota urges Fed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to boost labour market
Persistently low inflation means the Federal Reserve can throw all its resources behind the fledgling labour market recovery, according to the Minneapolis Fed president
Fed's Williams questions future of unconventional tools
San Francisco Fed president John Williams says forward guidance will help to improve transparency in more conventional times, while asset purchases should only be used as a last resort
Close elections kryptonite for foreign investors, Fed research finds
The timing of national elections causes FDI flows from US firms to affiliates in more than 40 countries to drop by an average of 12% compared to non-election years, according to Fed research paper
Lagarde says US has ‘special responsibilty' to unwind QE responsibly
IMF director says failure to raise US debt ceiling could seriously damage the global economy; warns emerging markets will have to adjust to new economic reality for remainder of the decade
NY Fed paper compares tools for managing short-term market rates
Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of paying interest on excess reserves, offering term deposits and engaging in reverse repos
FOMC members unpick Fed's ‘no taper' decision
Jeremy Stein suggests clear-cut forward guidance for QE wind-down as several members highlight Fed's ‘communication challenge'; Esther George says decision poses a risk to future credibility
Crisis prompted both ‘re-discovery' and overhaul of CBs' emergency liquidity
Walter Bagehot's dictum to lend freely at high interest rates and against good collateral during a financial panic was revived, then altered during the crisis, according to Thomas Baxter of the NY Fed
Basel update shows biggest banks' CET1 position improving
Latest periodical review of progress towards Basel III standards shows the world's biggest banks are closing the gap on core Tier I capital requirements; US issues guidelines for Basel compliance
Fed paper models monetary and fiscal policy interdependence
Working paper analyses interdependence between monetary and fiscal policy-making, testing policy experiments and finding a ‘non-negligible’ interaction between the two
US monetary policy weakened by fees and interest changes, paper finds
Research finds payment of interest on excess reserves and higher fees on uncollateralised overdrafts boosted efficiency but damaged the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy
Dallas Fed’s Fisher criticises FOMC decision
Richard Fisher vociferously opposed keeping asset purchases at $85 billion each month; warned the committee that doing so would damage the Federal Reserve’s credibility
Buffett’s ‘greatest hedge fund’ claim puts spotlight on the Fed
Warren Buffett's claim the Fed is ‘the greatest hedge fund in history’ fuels bloated balance sheet and politicisation debate; Fed veteran Gary Stern says 'sage of Omaha’s' comments are ‘misguided’
NY Fed trials new reverse repo facility
Federal Reserve Bank of New York tests new overnight reverse repo facility; William Dudley believes it will bolster the Fed’s control over short-term money market rates
BoJ’s Shirai says Japanese forward guidance is different from BoE and Fed's
Sayuri Shirai emphasises differences between Bank of Japan’s forward guidance and that employed by the Fed and Bank of England; refutes BoE claim that BoJ’s guidance is ‘open-ended’
Rajan unveils rate hike - and cut - as QE lingers on
RBI raises repo rate but cuts MSF rate as focus shifts from defending the rupee to keeping inflation in check; Rajan warns Fed taper ‘only postponed'
US fiscal stance is creating inflation, says Riksbank paper
Researchers show the existing unsustainable levels of US federal debt are generating inflationary pressures, but these are difficult to spot as they are being dwarfed by Fed policy and economic slack
IMF's Lagarde backs Fed over asset purchases
The IMF’s managing director believes the Fed should take a 'gradual' approach to reversing its asset purchases and rate cuts; stresses the importance of unemployment figures
Bernanke defends Fed communication after QE surprise
Ben Bernanke says FOMC communication in June was justified as Fed shocks markets by ploughing on with asset purchases; economists question why markets were focused on September meeting
Panellists hit out at Fed’s forward guidance in CBP debate
Federal Reserve gets mixed scorecard for its extraordinary monetary policy and communication performance, according to panellists in Central Banking On Air debate
Publishing minutes is vital for central bank comms, say markets
Market participant survey gives Fed highest score for policy and communication in the wake of the financial crisis; ECB scores worse in the absence of published minutes
A sad ending to Summers versus Yellen
The politicisation of the debate over who should be the next chair of the Federal Reserve may be a sign of the times, but it is a sad day for central banking, argues Thomas Cargill