Since the collapse of the U.S. financial markets in 2008, Congress and the policy community have been engaged in a broad-based discussion about the housing market reform, including making significant changes to the operations of government sponsored entities (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae, Freddie...

In recent years, the need for financial education has gained the attention of a wide range of entities including banking companies, government agencies, grass-roots consumer and community interest groups, universities, schools, and other organizations. Numerous factors have led to a complex,...

This paper reviews what economists have learned about Internet banking. The paper begins by surveying evidence regarding the fundamental motivations for banks to offer services via the Internet and for their customers to utilize the services. It considers the experience of and future prospects...

To be effective, programs of regulatory reform must address the incentive conflicts that intensify financial risk-taking and undermine government insolvency detection and crisis management. Subsidies to risk taking that large institutions extract from the financial safety net encourage managers...

This paper asks whether personal financial management education is an effective mechanism for helping lower-income households accumulate financial assets and improve credit histories. The paper argues that the best existing studies of the effectiveness of financial literacy initiatives suggest...

This Policy Brief provides an overview of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and perspective on some of its key provisions affecting health insurance. Following a synopsis of the main problems that confront U.S. health care and insurance, it considers the extent to which the Affordable Care Act (ACA)...

Officials must show that they understand why and how the public's confidence in the federal government's ability to manage financial turmoil was lost. Leaders of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must face up to their institutions' roles in an...

Despite the fact that it grew out of a financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act was not the result of a bipartisan consensus. It received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives and only three Republican votes in the Senate. There are repeated statements by Republicans that they would...

This paper discusses and critically appraises recent developments in the definition, measurement, and regulation of systemic risks. Although the issue of systemic risks has been subjected to considerable study, there is not widespread agreement on how to define this concept. Initial efforts to...

Medicare is America's second largest entitlement program and this year will account for 14 percent of the Federal budget, 3.2 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is growing rapidly so that by the end of the Medicare Trustees 75-year projection period, 2080, the Medicare...