We construct a model in which all consolidated government debt is used in transactions, with money being more widely acceptable. When asset market constraints bind, the model can deliver low real interest rates and positive rates of inflation at the zero lower bound. Optimal monetary policy in...

A model of money, credit, and banking is constructed in which the differential pledgeability of collateral and the scarcity of collateralizable wealth lead to a term premium — an upward-sloping nominal yield curve. Purchases of long-maturity government debt by the central bank are always a...

A dynamic model with credit under limited commitment is constructed, in which limited memory can weaken the effects of punishment for default. This creates an endogenous role for government debt in credit markets, and the economy can be non-Ricardian. Default can occur in equilibrium, and...

(Copyright: Elsevier)

A model of credit and government debt with limited commitment is constructed, building on a Lagos-Wright construct. In the baseline equilibrium, global punishments support an efficient equilibrium in which government debt is neutral - there is Ricardian equivalence. In a symmetric equilibrium...

We study the interplay among imperfect memory, limited commitment, and theft, in an environment that can support monetary exchange and credit. Imperfect memory makes money useful, but it also permits theft to go undetected, and therefore provides lucrative opportunities for thieves. Limited...

A model is constructed in which consumers and banks have incentives to fake the quality of collateral. Conventional central banking policy can exacerbate these problems, in that lower nominal interest rates make asset prices higher, which makes faking collateral more profitable, thus increasing...

This article is a reflection on monetary policy in the United States during Ben Bernanke’s two terms as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, from 2006 to 2014. Inflation targeting, policy during the financial crisis, and post-crisis monetary policy (forward guidance and quantitative...

The size of the Fed’s balance sheet has almost quadrupled since 2007, and the composition of the balance sheet has changed in important ways, with regard to both assets and liabilities. This short paper asseses the implications for how monetary policy works, and the entailed risks. The size of...