On 16 December 2008 the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lowered the federal funds rate—its traditional monetary policy instrument—to essentially zero in response to the most severe U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression. Because U.S. currency carries an interest ...

The global economy of today 'is a small world after all.' The high degree of international trade integration and financial interconnectedness has created tight linkages across most countries even between countries that may be very distant geographically or that may not have significant trade or financial ...

Since late 2008 when short-term interest rates reached their zero lower bound central banks have been conducting monetary policy through two primary instruments: quantitative easing (QE) in which they buy long-term government bonds and other long-term securities and so-called forward guidance in which ...

The 'Great Contraction' in global economic activity triggered by the financial crisis and the extraordinary fiscal and monetary measures that public authorities had to undertake in order to put the economy back on track by putting public finances under heavy strains and leading to extremely low ...

In response to the current global crisis the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world have implemented diverse policy measures including purchasing a wide range of securities lending to financial institutions intervening in foreign exchange markets and paying interest on reserves. ...

The dramatic policy response to the 2008-09 global economic crisis from many countries has revived some old debates about the use of fiscal and monetary policy in fighting recessions. The central dilemma for policy-makers in Japan North America and Europe has been to try to counter a large recession ...

The debate over the effectiveness of monetary policy often centers around the benefits of low interest rates as a stimulus for the real economy. The idea is that low interest rates encourage spending either in the form of consumption or investment and this promotes employment and production. The ...

Large negative aggregate demand shocks can drive down an economy’s equilibrium real interest rate and if the central bank is committed to stabilizing inflation monetary policy may be hampered by the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates –the economy may be in a 'liquidity trap.' The policy dilemma ...

Long-term interest rates have for long played an ambiguous role in the operation of monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that created the Federal Reserve set the monetary policy objective to be: '... to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment stable prices and moderate long-term ...

In June 2014 the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to cut the rate on its deposit facility (DFR) by 10 basis points (bp) into negative territory an unprecedented move as no major central bank had used negative rates before. This decision was part of a more comprehensive monetary policy easing package ...