Economic Commentary
Providing you with in-depth analysis of current economic and financial issues.
1988
- December 15, 1988
- Service-Sector Wages: The Importance of Education
- A study of how education affects wages in the manufacturing and service sectors, concluding that higher levels of basic education are necessary in order for both displaced manufacturing workers and new labor-force entrants to compete in the rapidly growing service sector. (PDF)
- December 1, 1988
- Commercial Lending of Ohio’s S&Ls
- An examination of the extent to which savings and loan associations in Ohio have chosen to exercise their expanded commercial lending powers in the 1980s, and an investigation of the impacts of this decision on their performance. (PDF)
- November 15, 1988
- Productivity, Costs, and International Competitiveness
- A review of how moderation in U.S. manufacturing labor costs and record growth in manufacturing productivity have helped to improve the U.S. trade deficit in recent years, and an evaluation of how well domestic producers have performed relative to their major trading partners. (PDF)
- November 1, 1988
- What’s Happened to Ohio’s Manufacturing Jobs?
- An examination of net employment changes in Ohio’s manufacturing sector through three recent periods, finding that weak overall growth stems more from a slowdown in job creation than from excessive plant closings or contractions. (PDF)
- October 15, 1988
- Assessing and Resisting Inflation
- An examination of the detrimental effects of inflation and a recommendation that policymakers should immediately resist a further acceleration of inflation, rather than wait for more signals of its future course. (PDF)
- October 1, 1988
- How Are the Ex-ODGF Thrifts Doing?
- A determination that the savings and loan associations surviving the 1985 Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund crisis as independent thrifts have performed better than similar-sized Ohio thrifts because they have been able to contain costs, thereby improving their net worth through higher earnings. (PDF)
- September 15, 1988
- The Case for Zero Inflation
- An argument that a monetary policy aimed at eliminating long-run inflation would benefit society by removing price distortion, increasing economic growth, adding liquidity to the economy, and reducing uncertainty associated with price-level drift. (PDF)
- September 1, 1988
- Intervention and the Dollar
- A study of U.S. intervention in the foreign exchange market between 1984 and 1987, concluding that exchange-rate stability among nations depends on fundamental macroeconomic policies, not intervention. (PDF)
- August 15, 1988
- Is the Thrift Performance Gap Widening? Evidence from Ohio
- An analysis of differences in earnings of the best- and worst- performing savings and loan associations in Ohio, explaining how differences in revenues, expenses, and costs in the last five years have caused the healthy thrifts to perform better and the sick thrifts to perform worse. (PDF)
- August 1, 1988
- Humphrey-Hawkins: the July monetary policy report
- A review of the Federal Reserve System’s July 1988 Monetary Policy Report to Congress, indicating a decline in the role of monetary aggregates in the policy process and including the Federal Open Market Committee’s projection of economic conditions. (PDF)
- July 15, 1988
- Three Common Misperceptions About Foreign Direct Investment
- A repudiation of three common beliefs about foreign direct investment in the United States: that it is the result of the current-account deficit, that it is initiated primarily by the Japanese, and that it will result in the loss of U.S. economic independence. (PDF)
- July 1, 1988
- A User’s Guide to Capacity-Utilization Measures
- A look at the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board indexes of capacity utilization, with an explanation of the indexes’ construction, advantages, and shortcomings; conclusion of June 15 issue. (PDF)
- June 15, 1988
- Measuring the Unseen: A Primer on Capacity Utilization
- An examination of the usefulness of two measures of capacity utilization in predicting price pressures and future investment: one measure attempts to represent the maximum physical output a plant can produce, and one is based on changes in production costs as output increases; article concludes with July 1 issue. (PDF)
- June 1, 1988
- Debt Repayment and Economic Adjustment
- An examination of the developing-country debt problem, considering both the difficulty of obtaining and servicing foreign loans and the resource adjustments associated with consumption, investment, and trade patterns. (PDF)
- May 15, 1988
- What’s Happening to Labor Compensation?
- A discussion of how wages have remained stable in the current expansion, resulting from changes in the industrial composition of employment and a more flexible process of labor. (PDF)
- May 1, 1988
- Stable Inflation Fosters Sound Economic Decisions
- An argument that monetary policy can meet concerns about output and employment indirectly by keeping inflation stable, thus allowing people to make sound production and consumption decisions. (PDF)
- April 15, 1988
- Merchandise Trade and the Outlook for 1988
- An explanation of why current forecasts that call for vast improvements in the U.S. trade balance and real net exports in 1988 may be too optimistic. (PDF)
- April 1, 1988
- International Developments and Monetary Policy
- A discussion of the problems associated with redressing global trade imbalances and why a monetary policy committed to international price stability is necessary in order to reform our international accounts and foster a healthy economic environment. (PDF)
- March 15, 1988
- Federal Budget Deficits: Sources and Forecasts
- An examination of two different government forecasts of the five-year federal budget outlook, both of which show persistent large deficits, and a recommendation for additional policy actions in order to achieve annual deficit targets. (PDF)
- March 1, 1988
- The Bank Credit-Card Boom: Some Explanations and Consequences
- An analysis of the surge in bank credit-card lending and the resulting rise in credit-card losses, which causes some banks to have higher charge-off rates than others because of different loan risks. (PDF)
- February 15, 1988
- Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Bank Regulation, Part II
- An examination of contagious bank runs and a discussion of how private clearinghouses have protected against widespread bank failures, with the determination that federal deposit insurance may not be necessary to protect against runs; conclusion of February 1 issue. (PDF)
- February 1, 1988
- Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Bank Regulation, Part I
- An analysis of the costs and benefits of providing federal deposit insurance as a means of preventing widespread bank failures, and the role of bank regulators in assuring bank solvency; article concludes with February 15 issue. (PDF)
- January 15, 1988
- Public Infrastructure and Economic Development
- A discussion of how public infrastructure deterioration adversely affects urban economic development and why cities with an aging industrial base find it difficult to maintain and improve public capital stock while meeting community welfare needs. (PDF)
- January 1, 1988
- Has Manufacturing’s Presence in the Economy Diminished?
- An argument that the economic importance of manufacturing, although commonly thought to be declining, has remained relatively strong because of manufacturing’s linkages with growth in other sectors of the economy. (PDF)