Regulators have expressed concern about the growth of a category of real estate investment trusts (REITs) that today invest primarily in mortgage-backed securities (MBS). These companies, known as mortgage REITs, or mREITs, have increased both in number and in asset size since the financial...

The educational systems and labor markets of Germany and the United States take different approaches to preparing young people for the workforce. One feature of Germany's workforce development model that has been of interest to policymakers in the United States is the important role played by...

Why do debit card networks base their fees on a percentage of transaction amounts when the marginal cost of executing a transaction does not vary by amount? Research suggests that this type of fee structure, a linear ad valorem fee, maximizes profits for card networks by allowing price...

The Richmond Fed conducts monthly surveys of business conditions in the manufacturing and service sectors of the Fifth Federal Reserve District. This article provides background information on these surveys and on other manufacturing and service sector surveys.The Richmond Fed conducts monthly...

Despite a large and growing earnings premium for college graduates, growth in college enrollment and especially college attainment in the United States has been quite slow. The labor market's apparent lack of responsiveness to the earnings premium may be driven in part by the risks that...

On November 21, 1985, the Bank of New York (BoNY) suffered a software failure that left it unable to redeliver securities it had received from other institutions as an intermediary. The result of the failure was that the bank sought and received $22.6 billion in discount window lending from the...

Adopted in part as a response to the 2007-08 financial crisis, the Basel III accord is the most recent revision to international capital standards for banks. Basel III primarily relies on methods similar to those of Basel II for assessing the relative risks of different types of assets. The main...

The Dodd-Frank Act, in addressing systemic risks to the financial system, requires federal regulators to extend a variety of requirements to nonbank financial institutions that are deemed "systemically important." But how can regulators, and the institutions themselves, best determine whether an...

U.S. academic economic departments tops in the world.

How a number changed lending (and got some Americans in over their heads