VoxEU.org: Recent Articles |
- The declining effectiveness of lockdowns
- Unstuffing banks with Fed deposits: Why and how
- External sovereign debt restructurings: Delay and replay
| The declining effectiveness of lockdowns Posted: Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been key to containing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This column examines whether the effectiveness of lockdowns on the virus's spread and death toll has changed over the past year, using data from 152 countries from the onset of the pandemic through 31 December 2020. Initially, lockdowns are associated with a significant reduction in the spread of the virus and the number of related deaths, but this effect declines over time. Lockdown does not work as a continuous containment policy in the event of a protracted pandemic.  |
| Unstuffing banks with Fed deposits: Why and how Posted: US banks currently hold almost $4 trillion in Fed deposits, as a result of the ongoing balance sheet expansion by the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, a year-long exclusion of Fed deposits and US Treasuries from bank capital rules is set to expire on 31 March. This column proposes a simple, feasible, and mandate-consistent strategy to replace $3 trillion in deposits with Treasury bills. These Treasuries could be held not only by banks, but also by mutual funds and non-residents, and this substitution also could save taxpayers money.  |
| External sovereign debt restructurings: Delay and replay Posted: Today, more than half of low-income countries eligible for relief under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative are either in debt distress or at high risk. Several emerging markets have either recently restructured (Argentina and Ecuador) or remain in default (Lebanon, Surinam, and Venezuela). In this context, this column reviews some of the features of external sovereign debt restructurings. It shows that default spells are lengthy and that the road to debt-crisis resolution is often littered with serial restructuring agreements.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from VoxEU.org: Recent Articles. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment