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In the mid-2000s, household private debt reached a new level 1.2 times larger than personal income--before collapsing during the Great Recession. This paper uses microeconomic data to document the main [...]

The Great Recession exposed many fault lines in the finances of American families. Younger adults, in particular, were susceptible to the perils of the downturn. Many faced elevated unemployment risk [...]

Unfortunately, many families with the greatest exposure to the economic dislocations of the recent recession also had very risky balance sheets beforehand that were characterized by low levels of liquid [...]

The authors use the Federal Reserves Survey of Consumer Finances to document a boom in home ownership and mortgage borrowing among young families in the years leading up to the [...]

This paper reviews some of the recent studies on international capital flows with a focus on the role of European global banks. It presents a revision to the commonly held [...]

Although aggregate current-dollar household net worth reached an all-time peak at the end of the first quarter of 2013, the average level of household wealth adjusted both for inflation and [...]

The article focuses on the differences between student debt characteristics of borrowers in low- and moderate-income (LMI) and middle- and upper-income (MUI) areas. It considers the differences in educational levels as one of the possible causes in the difference between the student debt levels in LMI and MUI. Also discussed is price discrimination for college education.

The article discusses the decline in U.S. household wealth from mid-2007 to early 2009. The U.S. Federal Reserve tracks household balance-sheet conditions with its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). SCF explains that the decline between median real net worth in 2007 and the median real net worth in 2010 was 39.1 percent among all families. It hypothesizes the important sources of unusually large percentage declines in wealth.

The article discusses the mechanics of shadow banking and its role in the U.S. financial crisis. It is described as a segment of financial intermediation that is coursed outside the balance sheets of depository institutions such as commercial banks. A comparison is made between credit intermediation in the shadow banking system and the traditional banking system. The creation of off-balance-sheet entities is seen as a key reason behind shadow banking's creation and growth.

The article examines the reasons behind the increase in student-loan debt in the states that constitute the U.S. Federal Reserve's Eighth District. Topics discussed include the possible factors that may explain why the amount of student-loan debt has expanded, how the differences in tuition growth and college-enrollment growth may led to variation across states, and the real adjusted for inflation growth in U.S. enrollment-weighted tuition and fees since 1982.

The article discusses wealth loss of U.S. population between 2007 and 2010, due to the severe economic recessions. It states that according to a survey conducted by Federal Reserve, the wealth of the median U.S. household in 2010 was 39 percent lower than 2007, adjusted with inflation. In the case of disadvantaged minority, the decline was 20 percent. It mentions that several young households are financially fragile.

The article discusses the impact of credit default swaps (CDS) on the European debt crisis. According to the article, unlike other insurance agreements, sellers of CDS were not subject to significant regulation and were not required to hold reserves against CDS in case of default. It is widely believed that this regulatory laxity exacerbated the European financial crisis by allowing financial firms to sell insurance on various securities backed by residential mortgages and other assets.

The article outlines a preliminary study of trends in capital flows to and from emerging markets, which play a growing role in the global economy. A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects an estimated 45% of global output by 2025, up from 37% in 2011, to come from Brazil, Russia, India and China also called the BRIC countries as well as Indonesia and South Korea. It is suggested that foreign direct investment (FDI) has strong links to growth and employment in these markets.

The article discusses some guidelines on how to better understand housing price indexes. Some of the top indexes used are the National Association of Realtors median index and the Census Bureau median index. The "repeat sales" methodology is used to simplify the changes that occur in the house and in the market over time. Differences among other indexes such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency index, Case-Shiller, and CoreLogic indexes are also included.