Search Results

(refine search)

SORT BY: PREVIOUS / NEXT

All:
Title:
Author:
Abstract:
Keywords:

+ Add Search Parameter

Discussion Paper
High Unemployment and Disinflation in the Euro Area Periphery Countries
Klitgaard, Thomas; Peck, Richard (2014-07-14)
Economists often model inflation as dependent on inflation expectations and the level of economic slack, with changes in expectations or slack leading to changes in the inflation rate. The global slowdown and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis caused the greatest divergence in unemployment rates among euro area member countries since the monetary union was founded in 1999. The pronounced differences in economic performances of euro area countries since 2008 should have led to significant differences in price behavior. That turned out to be the case, with a strong correlation evident between ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20140714a

Discussion Paper
Euro Area Spending Imbalances and the Sovereign Debt Crisis
Klitgaard, Thomas; Higgins, Matthew (2012-05-02)
Euro area periphery countries borrowed heavily from abroad in the run-up to the sovereign debt crisis. How were these funds used? In this post, we recap our recent Current Issues study, showing that pre-crisis borrowing by the periphery countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) went mainly to finance private consumption or housing booms rather than productivity-enhancing investments. Most analysis of the crisis has focused on the need for fiscal adjustment in the periphery. A look at the drivers of the run-up in foreign borrowing, however, suggests that private spending in the ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20120502

Discussion Paper
The Disconnect between Productivity and Profits in U.S. Oil and Gas Extraction
Higgins, Matthew; Klitgaard, Thomas (2022-08-17)
U.S. oil and gas production boomed during the years leading up to the pandemic. From 2011 to 2019, oil production more than doubled and dry natural gas production rose by more than half. Remarkably, these gains occurred despite lackluster investment spending and hiring. Instead, higher production came largely from productivity gains, via wider adoption of fracking technologies. More recently, production recovered sluggishly from the pandemic downturn despite a quick recovery in prices. Our analysis in this post suggests that slower productivity growth and investors’ demand for higher ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20220817

Discussion Paper
Spending Down Pandemic Savings Is an “Only-in-the-U.S.” Phenomenon
Klitgaard, Thomas; Higgins, Matthew (2023-10-11)
Household saving soared in the United States and other high-income economies during the pandemic, as consumers cut back on spending while government policies supported incomes. More recently, saving behavior has diverged, with the U.S. saving rate dropping below its pre-pandemic average while saving rates elsewhere have remained above their pre-pandemic averages. As a result, U.S. consumers have been spending down the “excess savings” built up during the pandemic while the excess savings abroad remain untapped. This divergent behavior helps explain why U.S. GDP has returned to its ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20231011

Journal Article
In brief: understanding the rising Japanese trade surplus
Klitgaard, Thomas (1994-04)
Intuition suggests that a strengthening of the yen should moderate Japan's trade surplus by reducing the price competitiveness of Japanese goods. Yet the Japanese merchandise trade surplus more than doubled from 1990 to 1993 while the yen appreciated roughly 30 percent against the dollar. This article shows how a sequence of increases in the yen's value repeatedly pushed the trade surplus higher, delaying the downward adjustment that eventually results from a yen appreciation. Once the yen stabilizes, the author suggests, the surplus should fall significantly.
Quarterly Review , Volume 19 , Issue Spr , Pages 34-37

Journal Article
The balance of payments crisis in the euro area periphery
Klitgaard, Thomas; Higgins, Matthew (2014)
Countries in the euro area periphery borrowed heavily from abroad in the years leading up to the sovereign debt crisis, largely to finance increased consumption and housing investment. When the crisis hit in 2010, capital flight by private investors forced these countries to bring domestic spending back into line with domestic incomes?the same adjustment required of countries facing a typical balance of payments crisis. Nevertheless, adjustment to the pullback of private capital was not as harsh as might have been expected, owing to the workings of the euro area?s system for managing ...
Current Issues in Economics and Finance , Volume 20

Discussion Paper
The Need for Very Low Interest Rates in an Era of Subdued Investment Spending
Wheeler, Harry; Klitgaard, Thomas (2017-03-22)
Why have interest rates stayed low for so long after the financial crisis?and will they remain low for the foreseeable future? One way to answer these questions is to use the accounting identity that global saving must equal physical investment spending and argue that low rates have been necessary to prop up investment spending enough to match saving. From this perspective, the extent of any recovery in interest rates depends on whether weak investment spending is driven primarily by secular demographic trends that are a long-term drag on aggregate demand or by the residual effects of the ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20170322

Journal Article
Viewing the current account deficit as a capital inflow
Klitgaard, Thomas; Higgins, Matthew (1998-12)
With the 1998 current account deficit approaching $225 billion, attention is again focusing on the deficit's impact on U.S. jobs. Although a high deficit does adversely affect employment in export- and import-competing industries, it also means that considerable foreign capital is flowing into the United States, supporting domestic investment spending that stimulates growth and creates jobs.
Current Issues in Economics and Finance , Volume 4 , Issue Dec

Discussion Paper
A Country‑Specific View of Tariffs
Higgins, Matthew; Klitgaard, Thomas (2025-10-06)
U.S. trade policy remains in flux. Nevertheless, important elements of the new policy regime are apparent in data through July. What stands out are the large differences in realized tariff rates by trading partner, ranging from less than 5 percent for Canada and Mexico to 15 percent for Japan and to 40 percent for China. This post shows that the bulk of cross-country differences in tariff rates is explained by two factors: the U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement and differing sales shares in tariff-exempt categories.
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20251006

Discussion Paper
The Rapidly Changing Nature of Japan’s Public Debt
Wheeler, Harry; Klitgaard, Thomas (2016-06-22)
Japan’s general government debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest of advanced economies, due in part to increased spending on social services for an aging population and a level of nominal GDP that has not increased for two decades. The interest rate payments from taxpayers on this debt are moderated by income earned on government assets and by low interest rates. One might think that the Bank of Japan’s purchases of government bonds would further ease the burden on taxpayers, with interest payments to the Bank of Japan on its bond holdings rebated back to the government. Merging the balance ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20160622

show more (24)

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Fed in Print

Search Results

FILTER BY year

FILTER BY Bank

FILTER BY Series

FILTER BY Content Type

FILTER BY Author

FILTER BY Jel Classification

FILTER BY Keywords