Financial consolidation and monetary policy

Paper for a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entitled Financial Innovation and Monetary TransmissionBank mergers ; Monetary policy

Profits and balance sheet developments at U.S. commercial banks in 1997

U.S. commercial banks had another excellent year in 1997. Their return on equity remained in the elevated range that it has occupied for five consecutive years, and their return on assets reached a new high. Banks maintained their profitability while also adding significantly to assets. The year's strong economic growth increased the demand for credit; banks more than met that demand, gaining market share. In addition, banks departed from the pattern of recent years by sharply increasing their holdings of securities. Compared with 1996, banks earned a somewhat lower average rate on their interest-earning assets and paid a bit more on their liabilities, but these developments were more than offset by higher fee income and increased efficiency. Loan losses remained low relative to loans.Banks and banking - Accounting ; Bank assets

Direct investment: a doubtful alternative to international debt

The paper considers a model in which private foreign investors make direct long-lived capital investments in a small developing country that is subject to stochastic shocks to production. Depending upon the preferences of the host country, we find that expropriation can occur because of either desperation or opportunism. We show that under reasonable assumptions, increased investment makes expropriation less likely to occur and that the level of investment chosen by atomistic foreign investors may be nonoptimal.International finance ; Developing countries

Recent changes to the Federal Reserve's survey of terms of business lending

The Federal Reserve's quarterly Survey of Terms of Business Lending, which has been conducted for more than twenty years, collects information on interest rates and other characteristics of commercial bank business loans. The survey has been changed from time to time to recognize innovations in bank lending practices and to improve the measurement of the desired information. The most recent changes took effect with the May 1997 survey. The major improvement was the addition of an item measuring loan risk. In addition, the reporting panel, which had been limited to domestically chartered commercial banks was expanded to include a sample of U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks, which now account for a significant proportion of business lending to U.S. firms. This article discusses the most recent changes made to the survey and presents some information now available from the new items being reported. It also summarizes information about the use of loan risk ratings from consultations conducted with a sample of the survey respondents during the process of planning the revisions to the survey.Commercial loans

Designing the Main Street Lending Program: Challenges and Options

The Main Street Lending Program (MSLP) was established by the Federal Reserve to provide loans to small and mid-sized firms and large below-investment-grade firms that were financially sound before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, which was established under the Fed’s Section 13(3) emergency authorities, is supported by capital from the U.S. Treasury and became operational in July 2020; however, utilization has been slight. We describe the economic challenges in designing a loan support program and evaluate the MSLP program in terms of how it manages significant asymmetric information, adverse selection, poor targeting, and moral hazard problems while protecting taxpayer funds. We contrast the MSLP with other possible approaches, such as subsidies or loan guarantees. We conclude by recommending changes to the program to increase its usage and effectiveness

Cavity Resonant Mode in a Metal Film Perforated with Two-Dimensional Triangular Lattice Hole Arrays

The transmission property of metallic films with two-dimensional hole arrays is studied experimentally and numerically. For a triangular lattice subwavelength hole array in a 150 nm thick Ag film, both cavity resonance and planar surface modes are identified as the sources of enhanced optical transmissions. Semi-analytical models are developed for calculating the dispersion relation of the cavity resonant mode. They agree well with the experimental results and full-wave numerical calculations. Strong interaction between the cavity resonant mode and surface modes is also observed

Bacteria in Construction Site Sediment Basins

2010 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Science and Policy Challenges for a Sustainable Futur

Default, settlement, and signalling: lending resumption in a reputational model of sovereign debt

This paper develops a simple model of sovereign debt in which defaulting nations are excluded from capital markets and regain access by making partial repayments. This is consistent with the historical evidence that defaulting countries return to international loan markets soon after a settlement, but after varying periods of exclusion.Debts, External

Effects Of Community-Based Exercise Training Among Older Individuals With Metabolic Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, Or Muscle Atrophy

Exercise training is associated with increased health benefits such as improved quality of life, mental health, and physical functioning. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of structured aerobic and resistance exercise training on body composition, functional tests, and quality of life in older individuals in a community-based facility. We hypothesized that at least moderate participation in the program would decrease fat mass, improve outcomes on grip and timed movement tests, and increase quality of life. METHODS: Twenty subjects who were members from a community-based institute participated in the study (7M:13F; 69.10 ± 6.40 yrs [mean ± sd]; 166.88 ± 10.52 cm; 76.40 ± 16.42 kg) and had metabolic or cardiovascular disease, or muscle atrophy. Subjects were expected to participate in 3, 30-min sessions/week for 8 weeks. The program was 30 min aerobic conditioning of intervals and 6–7 full-body resistance exercises and basic stretches. We measured height (cm), weight (kg), fat mass (kg), lean mass (kg), grip strength (kg), timed-up-go (TUG, s), 10-meter walk forwards (s), 10-meter walk backwards (a novel movement) (s), 6-minute walk tests (m), the Health-Related Quality of Life (CDC HRQOL-4) survey, and 36-Item Short-Form Health (SF-36), before and after the completion of exercise training. We performed paired t-tests on testing variables and the 8 subsections of the SF-36 and one-sample t-tests on the delta of questions on the HRQOL-4. Alpha \u3c0.05. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in any of the SF-36 subsections or testing variables (p \u3e 0.05) except for increased right-hand grip strength (2.02 ± 4.35 kg, p = 0.05) and decreased time in the backwards 10-meter walk (0.52 ± 0.88 s, p = 0.02). Concerning the HRQOL-4, no members had fair to poor self-rated health before or after the program, more members experienced fewer but non-significant physically unhealthy days (delta = -3.61 ± 8.67 days, p = 0.10), and a similar number of mentally unhealthy days and days when poor mental/physical health kept them from usual activities (p \u3e 0.05). CONCLUSION: These preliminary findings suggest that there may be clinically meaningful improvements in strength and novel movement in these older individuals after an 8-week prescribed and training program in the community setting. Different measurements of quality of life in this population should be explored