William P. Osterberg

Research has generally failed to find reliable connections between official exchange-market interventions and exchange rates that are consistent with either a monetary or a portfolio-balance theory of exchange-rate determination.

This paper considers the impact of U.S. and German central bank intervention on the risk premium in forward foreign exchange markets.

Included in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 was a provision that improved the priority of depositors and thus of the FDIC in the event of a depository institution’s failure.

It is unclear whether the distinction between U.S. foreign exchange intervention and newspaper reports of such activity is important.

Depositor-preference laws provide depositors with a claim on a failed depository institution’s assets that is senior to unsecured general creditor claims.

This paper looks at the underlying determinants of bank resolution costs. In the spirit of James (1991), resolution costs are modeled as functions of problem assets.

I perform an empirical analysis of Euler equations for the firm’s choices of capital, labor, hours, and debt. Financial structure has real effects, since taxes favor debt.

Germany, Japan, and the United States continue to view foreign exchange intervention as an effective instrument, although the mechanism through which it operates is unclear.

Evidence that forward rates for foreign exchange are not unbiased forecasts of future spot rates suggests a time-varying risk premium.

This paper examines two proposals to correct the risk-taking incentives embedded in the current deposit insurance system and to provide protection to the deposit insurance fund.

Currency markets have witnessed a sharp increase in government intervention since 1985.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of the leverage ratios for 232 bank holding companies for December 1986, June 1987, and December 1987.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of commercial bank holdings of municipal securities (munis) from June 1985 through December 1988, using the FFIEC’s Reports of Condition and Income.

The shift from a fixed-exchange-rate regime to a flexible regime, in which central-bank exchange-market intervention has been highly visible, has renewed interest in studying the effects of intervention.

An examination of the impact of increased capital requirements on bank portfolio behavior the impact of increased capital requirements on portfolio behavior is generally ambiguous.

An analysis of the corporate investment decision when financial structure has real effects, utilizing data for the U.S. manufacturing sector from 1954 to 1980.

An analysis of a q model of investment in which financial structure affects firm value, using a perfect foresight model of general equilibrium that includes a debt-related agency cost.

The impacts of deposit insurance and forbearance on the costs and value of uninsured deposits and equity capital are shown under three regimes.

An examination of the short- and long-run effects of inflation on financial markets and investment.

Foreign-exchange-market intervention is generally ineffective when undertaken independent of monetary policy. But when undertaken as a goal of monetary policy, exchange-rate management can compromise price stability. This Economic Commentary explains the difficulties of implementing an intervention policy.

The increased turmoil in international financial markets, starting with the Asian crises of 1997, has led to calls for financial assistance from the wealthier nations.

Stored-value cards are among the most interesting payments innovations of recent years. Balances on these cards can typically be transferred without involving a depository institution directly.

The highly publicized problems of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998 have once again focused the attention of policymakers and the financial press on the hedge fund industry.

For more than two decades, economists and business journalists have heralded the coming of a paperless society in which electronic payments will quickly replace the use of cash and paper checks in retail transactions.

Measuring output in the nation’s service industries has always been problematic, but in recent years, economists have been focusing more intensely on this issue.

Analyses of the Mexican financial system in the wake of the 1994- 95 peso crisis have generally focused on the fiscal costs of recapitalizing the nation’s banks and of satisfying bank claimants.

As part of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) of 1989, Congress mandated a minimum coverage ratio of $1.25 of insurance reserves per $100 of insured deposits.

According to news accounts, on March 3 of this year, 18 central banks spent approximately $500 million to support the international value of the U.S. dollar. The Federal Reserve System was reported to have spent $250 million the previous day.

In November 1993, the U.S. Congress voted to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after months of heated debate about its likely impact on our economy.

The first concrete step toward resolving the decade-long thrift debacle was taken by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), which overhauled the federal savings and loan regulatory apparatus.

The commercial banking industry as a whole fared well in 1992, with many institutions citing improvements in profitability.

The last day of 1990 was an important date for sports franchises.

Leveraged-buyouts (LBOs) have had a major impact on our financial system, and have particularly affected traditional corporate relationships between stockholders, bondholders, and employees.

The worldwide stock-market decline on October 19 has increased uncertainty about future changes in employment and output both in the United States and abroad.

The dramatic loss of U.S. international competitiveness in manufacturing industries has been of increasing concern to U.S. policymakers.