Social Security has been an extremely popular program over its 70 years of existence. It has provided retirement, life insurance and disability benefits to workers and their families. Through the years, benefits have been expanded and adjusted, new groups of workers have been covered, and taxes...

Finance is a branch of economics that deals with budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, lending, insuring, diversifying, and matching. In setting standards of financial literacy we ought to make sure they are consistent with the basic principles taught in economics courses

This brief evaluates the supervisory-process and market-discipline pillars of the Basel II bank regulatory framework. It reviews and critiques their fundamental features and reaches three conclusions. First, the supervisory-process pillar provides too much scope for supervisory discretion and...

Throughout the past three decades of fast growth, China has undergone tremendous structural changes in its economy. There has been significant and continuing industrialization, urbanization and integration into the world economy. The financial system has also undergone major changes, with the...

Since the revelation of accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom, and several other high profile companies ("Enron et al.") five years ago, there has been unprecedented public focus on U.S. corporate governance. A common view, articulated by many journalists, politicians, and public pundits is...

This policy brief assesses the implications of Basel II for bank regulatory compliance costs. In spite of widespread complaints by bankers about the costs of complying with Basel II rules, the academic literature has given surprisingly little attention to quantifying these costs. The brief...

Bank failures are often perceived to be more costly to the economy than the failure of other firms of comparable size and to generate widespread public fear. As a result, preventing bank failures is a major public policy concern in all countries. Unfortunately, most public policy strategies...

An intense debate over the choice of regulatory authority, e.g., state vs. federal regulation, continues in the U.S. The debate not only exhibits the diversity of political and economic interests of various groups such as the federal government, state governments and the NAIC, insurance...

Small banks have an important role in financing economic activity through their financial services for small businesses. There has been a sharp decline in the number of small banking organizations in the U.S. since the early 1980s. A continuation of this trend would raise important issues about...

Despite the presence of many and diverse sellers of insurance in most markets, insurance prices in some markets remain subject to regulation by state governments. Insurance rate regulation has a long and storied history in this country and the reasons for its continued existence are subject to...