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Begin New Search Topic International Trade and Finance Content Type Working Paper Publishing Institution The Cato Institute

1. The Resolution of Systematically Important Financial Institutions: Lessons from Fannie and Freddie

Author:
Mark A. Calabria
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
There was perhaps no issue of greater importance to the financial regulatory reforms of 2010 than the resolution, without taxpayer assistance, of large financial institutions. The rescue of firms such as AIG shocked the public conscience and provided the political force behind the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. Such is reflected in the fact that Titles I and II of Dodd-Frank relate to the identification and resolution of large financial entities. How the tools established in Titles I and II are implemented are paramount to the success of Dodd-Frank. This paper attempts to gauge the likely success of these tools via the lens of similar tools created for the resolution of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Financial Crisis, and Reform

2. International Developments in the Insurance Sector: The Road to Financial Instability?

Author:
Therese M. Vaughan and Mark A. Calabria
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
International activity related to the regulation and supervision of financial services has exploded since the global financial crisis. The crisis exposed weaknesses in the structure for regulating internationally active banks, and motivated a number of work streams aimed at strengthening standards (most notably, significant revisions to the Basel capital standard for internationally active banks, now known as Basel III). The insurance sector was also stressed by the meltdown in financial markets that occurred in 2007-2008, albeit far less than the banking sector, and, with the exception of AIG, it is generally recognized that insurers played little role in the financial crisis, and that traditional insurance activities do not pose a systemic risk to the financial system.1,2 Nonetheless, the insurance sector has also been targeted for a new stream of regulatory initiatives at the international level. The most important organizations with respect to these activities are the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), both based in Basel, Switzerland. The purpose of this paper is to review these developments and to highlight potential concerns for U.S. insurance markets.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Does Immigration Impact Economic Freedom?

Author:
Benjamin Powell, Alex Nowrasteh, J. R. Clark, Robert A. Lawson, and Ryan H. Murphy
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The economics literature generally finds a positive, but small, gain in income to native-born populations from immigrants and potentially large gains in world incomes. But immigrants can also impact a recipient nation's institutions. A growing empirical literature supports the importance of strong private property rights, a rule of law, and an environment of economic freedom for promoting long run prosperity. Although the literature on the impact of economic freedom on various social and economic outcomes is quite large, comparatively little work has tried to explain economic freedom as a dependent variable. This paper empirically examines how immigration impacts a region's policies and institutions. We find small but positive increases in institutional quality as a result of immigration.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, International Trade and Finance, and Immigration

4. Antitrust Enforcement in the Obama Administration's First Term: A Regulatory Approach

Author:
William F. Shughart II and Diana W. Thomas
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
During his presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama criticized sharply the lax anti-trust law enforcement record of the George W. Bush administration. Subsequently, his first assistant attorney general for antitrust even went so far as to suggest that the Great Recession was, at least in part, caused by federal antitrust policy failures during the previous eight years. This paper sets out to investigate how and in what ways antitrust enforcement has changed since President Obama took office in 2009. We review four recent antitrust cases and the behavioral remedies that were imposed on the defendants in those matters in detail. We find that the Obama administration has been significantly more active in enforcing the antitrust laws with respect to proposed mergers than his two predecessors in the White House had been. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission, together with the Department of Justice, withdrew a thoughtful report on the enforcement of Section 2 of the Sherman Act and issued new merger guidelines and a new merger policy remedy guide, all of which have moved antitrust law enforcement away from traditional structural remedies in favor of very intrusive behavioral remedies in an unprecedented fashion. That policy shift has further transformed antitrust law enforcers into regulatory agencies, a mission for which they are not well-suited, resulting in the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission being more vulnerable to rent seeking.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Governance, and Law Enforcement

5. Why Growth Is Getting Harder

Author:
Brink Lindsey
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
For over a century, the trend line for the long-term growth of the U.S. economy has held remarkably steady. Notwithstanding huge changes over time in economic, social, and political conditions, growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has fluctuated fairly closely around an average annual rate of approximately 2 percent. Looking ahead, however, there are strong reasons for doubting that this historic norm can be maintained.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Financial Crisis, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States

6. Central Banks: Reform or Abolish?

Author:
Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Advocates of central bank reform must examine why central banks emerged and what forces sustain them. They did not arise in an institutional vacuum, and will not be reformed in an institutional vacuum. The historical origins of central banks explain how they came into existence. The forces sustaining and feeding their growth may differ from those explaining their origin.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States

7. Still a Better Deal: Private Investment vs. Social Security

Author:
Michael Tanner
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Opponents of allowing younger workers to privately invest a portion of their Social Security taxes through personal accounts have long pointed to the supposed riskiness of private investment. The volatility of private capital markets over the past several years, and especially recent declines in the stock market, have seemed to bolster their argument.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States

8. World Hyperinflations

Author:
Steve H. Hanke and Nicholas Krus
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
This chapter supplies, for the first time, a table that contains all 56 episodes of hyperinflation, including several which had previously gone unreported. The Hyperinflation Table is compiled in a systematic and uniform way. Most importantly, it meets the replicability test. It utilizes clean and consistent inflation metrics, indicates the start and end dates of each episode, identifies the month of peak hyperinflation, and signifies the currency that was in circulation, as well as the method used to calculate inflation rates.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis

9. Still a Protectionist Trade Remedy: The Case for Repealing Section 337

Author:
K. William Watson
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 gives the United States International Trade Commis¬sion (ITC) the power to exclude products from the United States that are imported pursuant to “unfair methods of competition.” The range of potential activities covered by the law is broad, but the most common claim brought before the ITC is patent infringement. In addition to fil¬ing a lawsuit in federal district court, U.S. pat¬ent holders can often use Section 337 to bring a second case over the same subject matter as long as the defendant imports the impugned product from abroad. This tactic has become increasing¬ly popular because the ITC renders its decisions relatively quickly and has the authority to order a very powerful remedy—total exclusion of the product from the U.S. market.
Topic:
International Organization, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
United States

10. Capital Inadequacies: The Dismal Failure of the Basel Regime of Bank Capital Regulation

Author:
Kevin Dowd, Martin Hutchinson, Jimi Hinchliffe, and Simon Ashby
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The Basel regime is an international system of capital adequacy regulation designed to strengthen banks' financial health and the safety and soundness of the financial system as a whole. It originated with the 1988 Basel Accord, now known as Basel I, and was then overhauled. Basel II had still not been implemented in the United States when the financial crisis struck, and in the wake of the banking system collapse, regulators rushed out Basel III.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States