This section provides
links to abstracts of articles appearing in 2002 issues
of the New England Economic Review. Issues are
in reverse chronological order; articles are in the
order they appear in the Review.
Central
Banking in Other Industrialized Countries
The Federal Reserve System is studying the various
ways it might manage its portfolio of assets should
greater surpluses in the federal government’s
unified budget substantially reduce the supply of
marketable U.S. Treasury debt. The following articles,
written in November 2001, review the practices of
central banks in some other industrialized countries,
describing how they manage their assets when they
hold securities other than their government’s
debt. Their experience suggests two broad findings.
First, other central banks are relying increasingly
on market operations to manage their balance sheets,
and when necessary they are cultivating the development
of their credit markets in order to support their
operations. Second, repurchase agreements (or auctions
of other forms of collateralized loans) generally
account for an increasing share of central banks’
market operations and assets.
The
Practice of Central Banking in Other Industrialized
Countries
Richard W. Kopcke, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
