Despite the enormous popularity of the market for repurchase agreements, the behavior of interest rates on quot;repoquot; transactions is not well understood. An analysis of new data for 1992-95 reveals that repo rates on recently issued Treasury notes rise and fall in a regular pattern as the...

Although the open outcry method is still the best way to trade highly active contracts on futures exchanges, electronic systems can improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of trading some types of futures and options. In recent years, the volume of electronic trades on futures exchanges...

The Treasury Department makes available to the public considerable information about foreign holdings of its securities. Nevertheless, it is not possible to determine from the published data exactly which foreigners own U.S. Treasury debt and how much of this debt is in foreign hands

Each month, the government releases two estimates of U.S. employment growth - one based on a survey of firms, the other on a survey of households. Since 1994, these measures have diverged sharply. Evidence suggests that the household survey's estimate has risen more slowly because it undercounts...

What explains the wide swings in the default rate on high yield bonds in recent years? Differences in credit quality from year to year account for much of the observed variation in default rates, but economic conditions and the age of bonds have also played a role

The record number of fifty-point daily moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1996 - forty-five in the first three quarters alone - has attracted considerable media attention. An analysis traces this phenomenon to two basic causes: the record level of the Dow and the return of price...

The largest U.S. commercial banks are restructuring their retail operations to reduce the cost disadvantage resulting from a stagnant deposit base and stiffer competition. As part of this effort, some banks are opening 'supermarket,' or 'in-store,' branches: a new type of banking office within a...

Charge-offs on credit card loans are rising sharply. While many analysts blame this trend on an expanding supply of credit cards, a closer look reveals the importance of two demand factors - wealth and the share of the population at peak borrowing age - in explaining the increase in bad debt

The growth of 'sweeps' - a banking practice in which depository institutions shift funds out of customer accounts subject to reserve requirements - has reduced the required balances held by banks in their accounts at the Federal Reserve. This development could lead to greater volatility in the...

Most discussions of treasury auction design focus on the choice between two methods for issuing securities - uniform-price or discriminatory auctions. Although auction theory and much recent research appear to favor the uniform-price method, most countries conduct their treasury auctions using...