Liquidity problems lie at the heart of crises on financial markets as demonstrated in this paper by detailed descriptions of the stock market crash in 1987, the LTCM-crisis in 1998 and the financial market consequences of 11 September 2001. The events also demonstrate that modern central banks, in particular the U.S. Federal Reserve under AlanGreenspan, provided emergency liquidity to limit the...

We study optimal macroprudential policy in a model in which unconventional shocks, in the form of news about future fundamentals and regime changes in world interest rates, interact with collateral constraints in driving the dynamics of financial crises. These shocks strengthen incentives to borrow in good times (i.e. when “good news” about future fundamentals coincide with a low-world-interest...

Following the recent waves of financial crises in the advanced economies and a prolonged period of low interest rates, major parts of the world economy are experiencing low growth, a rise in financial volatility, and low rates of inflation. Specifically, in Japan and in large parts of the eurozone the crises persist. In large parts of the world, unconventional monetary policies—that is, ultra-l...

THE RECENT FINANCIAL CRISES IN EAST Asia, Russia, and elsewhere, and the earlier crisis in Mexico, have heightened interest in the subject of short-term borrowing by developing countries and the benefits and risks associated with such debt.1 This chapter examines the growth and determinants of short-term debt from international banks, the behavior of such debt during economic shocks, and its as...

The economic literature emphasised the role of strategic complementarities in generating banking crises and currency crises. Motivated by evidence from recent financial crises, we study a model, where strategic complementarities exist, not only within a group of creditors or within a group of currency speculators, but also between the two groups. The additional type of complementarities generat...

2 The Series " Documenti di Lavoro " of the Istituto di Studi e Analisi Economica – Institute for Studies and Economic Analyses (ISAE) hosts the preliminary results of the research projects carried out within ISAE. The diffusion of the papers is subject to the favourable opinion of an anonymous referee, whom we would like to thank. The opinions expressed are merely the Authors' own and in no wa...

A complex financial system comprises both financial markets and financial intermediaries. We distinguish financial intermediaries according to whether they issue complete contingent contracts or incomplete contracts. Intermediaries such as banks that issue incomplete contracts, e.g., demand deposits, are subject to runs, but this does not imply a market failure. A sophisticated financial system...