The new Basel Capital Adequacy Accord (Basel III) is an agreement among countries' central banks and bank supervisory authorities on the amount of capital banks must hold as a cushion against losses and insolvency. Basel III is of concern to Congress mainly because it could put U.S. financial...

Includes bibliographical references (p. 30).

The world has entered a global recession that is causing widespread business contraction, increases in unemployment, and shrinking government revenues. The process for coping with the crisis by countries across the globe has been manifest in four basic phases. The first has been intervention to...

The informal, underground or shadow economy is a significant, growing force throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to overall output, yet diminishing productivity, congesting public services, and depriving developing nations of potential fiscal revenues. This paper discusses...