I explain the key failure mechanics of large dealer banks, and some policy implications. This is not a review of the Financial crisis of 2007-2009. Systemic risk is considered only in passing. Both the Financial crisis and the systemic importance of large dealer banks are nevertheless obvious...

A central counterparty (CCP) is a financial market utility that lowers counterparty default risk on specified financial contracts by acting as a buyer to every seller, and as a seller to every buyer. When at risk of failure, a CCP could be forced into a normal insolvency process such as...

Biographical note: DuffieDarrell: Darrell Duffie is the Dean Witter Distinguished Professor of Finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. His books include "How Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It" and "Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory" (both Princeton).

This paper examines poverty in the United States from 1960 through 2005. We investigate how poverty rates and poverty gaps have changed over time, explore how these trends differ across family types, contrast these trends for several different income and consumption measures of poverty, and...

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives have been blamed for increasing systemic risk. Although OTC derivatives were not a central cause of the crisis, the complexity and limited transparency of the market reinforced the potential for excessive risk-taking,...