On August 11, 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 5.4% per year increase in the CPI for the third consecutive month, intensifying the ongoing debate about whether high inflation will prove temporary or more lasting. This paper seeks to inform this debate by evaluating the...

This paper studies the US equity market during the COVID-19 period in the first half of 2020. There is a record rise, then a record fall in prices and then a record recovery. Throughout the period there was extreme volatility and much short term momentum with fear and greed alternating. The VIX...

Over the past fourteen years, the U.S. Federal Reserve has rescued overleveraged financial companies, purchased trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, and created novel facilities to support ordinary businesses, nonprofits, and local governments. While some argue that the Fed has...

Many investors today cling to the hope that the Federal Reserve will abandon its aggressive contractionary monetary policy once markets begin to capitulate. Given the fundamental conditions at play, however, investors would be wise to abandon such fantasy. Instead, this paper argues that the...

This paper studies the relationship between the size of the banking sector’s refinancing needs vis-à-vis the central bank and auction rates in its open market operations in times of financial market stress. In a theoretical model, it is found that marginal rates at central bank auctions may...

Recent regulatory initiatives such as the European Deposit Insurance Scheme propose a change in the coverage and backing of deposit insurances. An assessment of these proposals requires a thorough understanding of what drives depositors' withdrawal decisions. We show that Google searches for...

We study the effects of stock market volatility on risk-taking and financial crises by constructing a cross-country database spanning up to 211 years and 60 countries. Prolonged periods of low volatility have strong in-sample and out-of-sample predictive power over the incidence of banking...

This paper analyses the interdependence between Islamic and conventional equities by taking into consideration the asymmetric effect of return and volatility transmission. We empirically investigate the decoupling hypothesis of Islamic and conventional equities and the potential contagion...

We study the intraday interest rate in a CCP-based GC pooling repo market and its key determinants. Since collateral used in this market is identical to collateral eligible for the daylight overdraft facility of the Eurosystem, any intraday rate in this market cannot be a result of collateral...

This paper seeks to inform about a feature of monetary policy that is largely overlooked, yet occupies a central role in modern monetary and financial systems, namely central bank collateral frameworks. Their importance can be understood by the observation that the money at the core of these...