The Crisis

Author(s):  
Massimo Rostagno ◽  
Carlo Altavilla ◽  
Giacomo Carboni ◽  
Wolfgang Lemke ◽  
Roberto Motto ◽  
...  

This chapter offers a comprehensive account of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) actions in the early phases of the financial crisis. We show how, despite stubborn inflation pressures, the ECB responded effectively to post-Lehman shock, inter alia by quantifying the effect of moving to ‘fixed rate with full allotment’ lending in regular and longer-term operations. We nonetheless demonstrate that the potency of this response was partially constrained by the ECB’s ‘passive’ approach to liquidity provision—which hinged on demand from banks—and the ‘separation principle’ between interest rate decisions and liquidity operations. We lay out how these principles began to dissolve with the launch of the ECB’s first bond-buying programmes—the Securities Market Programme in 2010 and the Outright Monetary Transactions programme in 2012—and quantify the effects of these measures. In particular, we document the sequence of events that led up to President Draghi’s famous ‘whatever it takes’ announcement.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-46
Author(s):  
Andrea Cecrdlova

The latest global crisis, which fully erupted in 2008, can have a significant impact on central banks credibility in the long run. During the last crisis, monetary authorities encountered zero interest rate levels and, as a result, started to use non-standard monetary policy instruments. The Czech National Bank decided to use a less standard instrument in November 2013, when it started to intervene on the foreign exchange market in order to keep the Czech currency at level 27 CZK / EUR. However, the European Central Bank also adopted a non-standard instrument, when chose a path of quantitative easing in 2015 in order to support the euro area economy by purchasing financial assets. The question remains whether the approach of Czech National Bank or the approach of European Central Bank in the crisis and post-crisis period was a more appropriate alternative. With the passage of time from the global financial crisis, it is already possible to compare the approaches of these two central banks and at least partially assess what approach was more appropriate under the given conditions. When comparing the central banks approaches to the crisis, the Czech National Bank was better, both in terms of the rate of interest rate cuts and the resulting inflation with regard to the choice of a non-standard monetary policy instrument. The recent financial crisis has revealed the application of moral hazard in practice, both on behalf of the European Central Bank and the Czech National Bank, which may have a significant impact on their credibility and independence in the coming years.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-480
Author(s):  
Andriana Milošević ◽  
Mirjana Jemović

AbstractAfter multiple decreases in the reference interest rate and its reaching zero bounds in certain countries during the recent global financial crisis, central banks in developed countries have started applying non-standard measures of monetary policy. This does not refer to introducing new monetary policy instruments, but rather to a certain relativisation within the framework of standard instruments, in terms of maturity of liquidity provision, collateral policy and counterparties. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the role of non-standard measures of monetary policy as a mechanism for overcoming problems in the implementation of the neoliberal concept of monetary policy in the conditions of the financial crisis. The answer to this question is rather sensitive, considering the fact that the neoliberal concept was supported by the most developed countries, that is, in fact, their central banks were using non-standard instruments of monetary policy for the greatest part.


2003 ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
O. Khmyz

Acording to the author's opinion, institutional investors (from many participants of the capital market) play the main role, especially investment funds. They supply to small-sized investors special investment services, which allow them to participate in the investment process. However excessive institutialization and increasing number of hedge-funds may lead to financial crisis.


Barely two decades after the Asian financial crisis Asia was suddenly confronted with multiple challenges originating outside the region: the 2008 global financial crisis, the European debt crisis, and, finally developed economies’ implementation of unconventional monetary policies. Especially the implementation of quantitative easing (QE), ultra-low interest rate policies, and negative interest rate policies by a number of large central banks has given rise to concerns over financial stability and international capital flows. One of the regions most profoundly affected by the crisis was Asia due to its high dependence on international trade and international financial linkages. The objective of this book is to explain how macroeconomic shocks stemming from the global financial crisis and recent unconventional monetary policies in developed economies have affected macroeconomic and financial stability in emerging markets, with a particular focus on Asia. In particular, the book covers the following thematic areas: (i) the spillover effects of macroeconomic shocks on financial markets and flows in emerging economies; (ii) the impact of recent macroeconomic shocks on real economies in emerging markets; and (iii) key challenges for the monetary, exchange rate, trade, and macroprudential policies of developing economies, especially Asian economies, and suggestions and recommendations to increase resiliency against external shocks.


2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome L. Stein

SummaryThe financial crisis was precipitated by the mortgage crisis. A whole structure of financial derivatives was based upon the ultimate debtors, the mortgagors. Insofar as the mortgagors were unable to service their debts, the values of the derivatives fell. The financial intermediaries whose assets and liabilities were based upon the value of derivatives were very highly leveraged. Changes in the values of their net worth were large multiples of changes in asset values. A cascade was precipitated by the mortgage defaults. In this manner, the mortgage debt crisis turned into a financial crisis. The crucial variable is the optimal debt of the real estate sector, which depends upon the capital gain and the interest rate. I apply the Stochastic Optimal Control (SOC) analysis to derive the optimal debt. Two models of the stochastic process on the capital gain and interest rate are presented. Each implies a different value of the optimal debt/net worth. I derive an upper bound of the optimal debt ratio, based upon the alternative models. An empirical measure of the excess debt: actual less the upper bound of the optimal ratio, is shown to be an early warning signal (EWS) of the debt crisis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 1650013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yevgeny Mugerman ◽  
Moran Ofir ◽  
Zvi Wiener

Housing is the most important asset in the portfolio of most households. Understanding the households’ decision on housing finance has important implications from a policy perspective, due to the effects it may have on the housing prices, on the housing market stability and on household welfare. The theoretical literature on housing finance focused on figuring out the optimal choice between fixed rate mortgages (FRMs) and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). We argue that the standard economic criteria are sometimes inadequate to explain household’s choices, which may be motivated by psychological factors. In other words, we claim that household’s choice depends only partially on the findings of the theoretical literature. We examine the effect of changes in the short-term market interest rate on the households’ choice between FRMs and ARMs. We test this effect using a unique data provided to us by the Bank of Israel, which contains detailed information on the household’s decision between FRM and ARM contracts in Israel in the past decade. The results of our analysis demonstrate a significant association between FRM preference and short-term interest rate reduction. Moreover, we find that the change in the short-term interest rate is more salient to the borrowers in periods of a high interest rate environment. We attribute these findings to Tversky and Kahneman (1974) availability and representativeness heuristics.


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