Most young households simultaneously hold both unsecured debt on which they pay an average of 10 percent interest and social security wealth on which they earn less than 2 percent. We document this fact using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We then consider a life-cycle model with...

Historically, lenders have been accused of "redlining" minority neighborhoods as well as refusing to lend to minority applicants. Considerable bank regulation is designed to prevent both actions. However, the strong correlation between race and neighborhood makes it difficult to distinguish the...

This paper explores the question of whether market participants could have or should have anticipated the large increase in foreclosures that occurred in 2007 and 2008. Most of these foreclosures stem from loans originated in 2005 and 2006, leading many to suspect that lenders originated a large...

Remarks by Eric S. Rosengren, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, for the Federal Reserve Conference on REO and Vacant Property Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization, Washington, D.C., September 2, 2010

Opening remarks by Eric S. Rosengren, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, at the conference, “Understanding the Housing Collapse: What is to Blame and What Can Be Done?”, co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School's Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston,...