We develop a search model of the federal funds market and show that, at each point along the trading session, rates are increasing in the penalty for reserve deficiencies, decreasing in the borrower's bargaining power, and when there are more (less) lenders than borrowers, also decreasing...

It is folklore among monetary theorists that, under laissez faire, absent ad-hoc assumptions that favor money over bonds, there do not exist equilibria in which government-issued fiat money coexists with nominal risk-free, interest-bearing government bonds with similar physical characteristics....

positions that require small reallocations. In such circumstances, welfare can increase if the government steps in, purchases private assets on its own account, and resells them when the economy recovers.