Beige Book Review & Analysis: October 24, 2001
The first Beige Book survey taken after September 11 portrays a troubled economy only a scavenger could love. Click here for Dean Baker's same-day analysis of the Beige Book.

Federal Reserve Research Roundup: Q3 2001
Each year, staff and visiting scholars at the Board of Governors and 12 Reserve Banks publish hundreds of journal articles, working papers, policy essays and other publications addressing topics that range from monetary aggregates to school vouchers. The Q3 Roundup summarizes noteworthy Fed research -- including reports about community development financial institutions, life insurance coverage trends, state corporate taxes and the European Central Bank -- and provides links to the original Fed documents.

Flow of Funds Review & Analysis: Q2 2001
In the face of nearly nonexistent GDP growth, borrowing by all nonfederal sectors rose at an 8.3 percent annualized rate in the second quarter. Meanwhile, household debt expanded nine times faster than disposable income even as the growth of bank credit decelerated sharply. Read about the implications in Jane D’Arista’s quarterly review of the Fed’s financial statistics.

Discount Window Liquidity and September 11 Aftershocks: September 18, 2001
In the aftermath of September 11, the Federal Reserve's crisis management tools include a little-know statutory provision that allows commercial firms to borrow at the central bank's discount window. FMC summarizes the pros and cons of emergency discount window credit for the battered airline industry.

Capital Flows Monitor: September 14, 2001
In 2000, America's net debt to the rest of the world soared to an unprecedented $2.2 trillion, equaling 22 percent of GDP. Capital Flows Monitor examines the U.S. international investment position and sizes up its implications for the domestic economy and current policy choices.

Taking It in the Wallet
In 2000, Fed governors saw the impact of tighter monetary policy and a market downturn reflected in their own portfolios. A Center report summarizes and analyzes top Fed officials' financial disclosure statements for 2000 and linked pages provide the only online access to detailed listings of Fed governors' financial holdings for 1998-2000.

FOMC Alert: August 21, 2001
Thirty years after the collapse of Bretton Woods, the international monetary system is a mess and an overvalued dollar is plaguing major sectors of the U.S. economy. On the anniversary of President Nixon closing the gold window, FOMC Alert looks at Tobin taxes as a vehicle for currency reform. Plus, a report card on the Fed's semi-annual testimony to Congress and more.

Making Change
What are citizen campaigns for currency transaction taxes trying to accomplish and how are they going about it? Click here for an extended discussion with key organizers from the U.S. and Canada (excerpts available in the August edition of FOMC Alert).

Questions for Greenspan
What kinds of questions should members of the House Financial Services Committee direct to Alan Greenspan when the Fed chairman delivers the central bank's semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress on July 18? FMC offers eight suggestions, on issues ranging from household debt to hedge funds.

Discount Rate Actions In 2000-2001
Led by the Dallas Fed, the 12 regional Reserve Banks aggressively promoted monetary easing with 74 separate recommendations to lower their discount rate during the first five months of 2001. A new FMC study explains how the torrent of easing requests drove the most dramatic downshifting of discount rate levels since the 1991 recession.

Consuming Interest
Who's advising the Federal Reserve on consumer issues at a time of renewed interest in lending industry practices? Increasingly, it's large financial firms, as a new FMC analysis of the Fed's Consumer Advisory Council reveals.

May 3, 2001 Speech to Fed Attorneys
To see remarks by Financial Markets Center executive director Tom Schlesinger to the annual Conference of Federal Reserve Counsel, click here.

Financial Holding Companies: One Year & Counting
Since March 2000, more than 500 firms holding more than a combined $5 trillion in assets have elected to become financial holding companies -- a new corporate form designed for mixing and matching banking, insurance and securities activities. FMC profiles the emerging industry and provides a detailed inventory of FHCs across the country.

Federal Reserve Bank Boards in 2001
Despite unusually low turnover levels, Reserve Bank boards have become more representative of interest-rate sensitive industries in 2001. FMC's fifth annual analysis of Reserve Bank board composition provides the details.

Reviews of Maestro
Wouldn't know a yield curve from a four-seam fastball. That's the verdict on Bob Woodward's best-selling account of Alan Greenspan's tenure as Fed chairman in a series of reviews by Financial Markets Center staff and others.

NAIRU: Dangerous Dogma at the Fed
The coexistence of low unemployment and low inflation has shattered the notion of a fixed NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) and yielded enormous economic benefits. According to a new Financial Markets & Society report by Dean Baker, allowing the unemployment rate to remain below the supposed NAIRU has provided more than ten times the economic gains claimed for deficit reduction or major trade agreements. Baker calculates that total wage income for workers in the lowest-paid fifth of the workforce was approximately 16 percent higher in the first half of 2000 than it would have been had the Federal Reserve held unemployment at the estimated NAIRU. Despite these achievements, Fed policymakers remain skittish about low levels of joblessness.

Uncivil Service: The Federal Reserve As a Workplace
How does the Federal Reserve deal with its own workers on bread-and- butter issues like unionization and pension fairness? Check out in- depth reports on:

Reforming the Privatized International Monetary and Financial Architecture
Jane D’Arista offers three innovative ideas for preventing a replay of the financial crises that have wracked the global economy during the 1990s: an international closed-end fund for investments in emerging markets; a new issuance of IMF special drawing rights; and a new public-sector clearing agency to replace the privatized system of currency relations that frustrates national sovereignty and stymies development.