The euro was expected to become a substitute for the U.S. dollar as an international currency. However, compromises made during its creation make it a less than perfect substitute in the medium term. Among these compromises was the application of macro convergence and micro diversity in...

This paper traces the evolution of housing finance in the United States from the deregulation of the financial system in the 1970s to the breakdown of the savings and loan industry and the development of GSE (government-sponsored enterprise) securitization and the private financial system. The...

This paper contrasts the economic incentives implicit in the Keynes Minsky approach to inherent financial market instability with the incentives behind the traditional equilibrium approach leading to market stability to provide a framework for analyzing the stability induced by the recent...

Recent United States experience is used to draw implications for European bank concentration. The basic hypothesis is that US concentration is driven by the need to internalise risk reduction activities and that this is done by creating an internal market comprising multiple financial...