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One of the few points everyone in Washington should be able to agree on is that a strong economy is vital to Americans’ — and America’s — fiscal health. But that point is often overlooked in the debates surrounding the fiscal cliff, which hinge primarily on two factors: reducing spending and increasing revenues. Growing the
With the so-called fiscal cliff now less than a month away, it is time for Congress and the Obama Administration to get serious about addressing the long-term fiscal challenges our country faces. The significant economic damage that would result from a failure to act during the next several weeks should be unacceptable to every elected
How much might the fiscal cliff disrupt the economy? Improving trends in the U.S. private sector — from housing prices to consumer confidence — contrast with the possible negative effects on growth as the public sector moves toward fiscal consolidation. This recording has been edited from its original format.
While the European Central Bank has made progress, we believe, on managing near-term liquidity risk, long-term structural issues remain.
The Dodd-Frank law strives to increase transparency in derivatives trading by moving over-the-counter trading to exchanges, where prices and counterparty risk are easier to track. This provision has pluses and minuses for financial institutions. On one hand, funding the over-the-counter trading was expensive, so less of this sort of trading actually helps to free up
The level of market distress surrounding global macro risks has declined in the latter half of 2012, helping sentiment and trading conditions in fixed-income markets return to more normal levels similar to those seen before the 2008 financial crisis.
As described in an earlier post, most U.S. banks now have — or are close to having — the capital they need to meet the federal government’s new capital requirements, we believe. One exception involves institutions that continue to have extensive investment banking operations and still are likely to need to increase capital. Generally speaking,
In 2010, Congress passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, popularly known as Dodd- Frank, with the purpose of regulating behavior of banks and financial institutions, capital markets, derivatives trading, and treatment of retail customers. Since then, regulatory authorities have been gradually implementing some provisions while writing rules for others with a process
Only two years ago, the future seemed bright for nuclear energy. But after the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan, the world has experienced a sea change in attitudes toward sustainable power sources. Indeed, where nuclear power recently seemed to promise an answer to our global energy needs, natural gas now appears to hold the key.