Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

The Treasury Department wants to apply more scrutiny to financial institutions that aren't banks

Apr 25, 2023
Several of them were responsible for the 2008 financial crisis.
Several nonbanks, including Bear Stearns,  were partially responsible for the 2008 financial crisis.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Nobel Prize in economics goes to trio focused on understanding, averting financial crises

The winners: former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond of the University of Chicago and Philip Dybvig of Washington University.
Hans Ellegren, center, of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Tore Ellingsen, left and John Hassler of the Nobel Prize economics committee, announce the winner in Stockholm on Monday.
Anders Wiklund/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images

To understand the Fed’s bond-buying dilemma, picture a lake

Jul 13, 2021
A Columbia Business School professor explains quantitative easing and the Feds' $120 billion per month bond-buying program with an analogy.
If water on a lake is too low, boats can't go from one side to the other smoothly. "The Fed is basically adding some water in that lake to keep the liquidity — or to keep the water — from completely drying out,” says Yiming Ma of Columbia Business School.
Ethan Miller via Getty Images

Should the Fed decide who gets bailout cash?

Mar 20, 2020
That authority was curbed during the 2008 financial crisis. Some are arguing that power should be returned.
The Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Liquidity will be key to weathering COVID-19 slowdown

Mar 13, 2020
"Credit is the mother’s milk of economic activity," said one analyst.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

What happened to the stock market today?

Mar 9, 2020
On Wall Street’s most turbulent since the COVID-19 outbreak, a Harvard economist explains what’s going on.
A trader reacts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Bond yields are lower than during the financial crisis

Mar 9, 2020
But that may not be signaling that the economic damage from the coronavirus will be as bad as the Great Recession.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

House subcommittee scrutinizes diversity at biggest banks

Feb 12, 2020
Reforms after the financial crisis haven't brought dramatic change.
Has Wall Street really become more diverse since the 2008 recession?
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

From recession to celebration, the business of wedding vows

Oct 3, 2019
During the financial crisis, two writers found their way into the wedding business.
A bride reads her vows at a ceremony officiated by Angie Sommer.
Amanda Wei

Could the explosion of corporate debt lead to a new financial crisis?

Oct 1, 2019
Today's corporate borrowing is similar in many ways to the mortgage debt that burst the housing bubble.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images