Category Archives: COVID-19

Refinancing Inequality during the COVID 19 Pandemic

By | May 5, 2021

Mortgage refinancing is one of the main channels through which monetary policy affects the pocketbooks of everyday Americans. When interest rates are sufficiently low, homeowners can refinance their loans, reducing their monthly payment and realizing a substantial reduction in borrowing costs over the life of the loan. The logic behind expansionary monetary policy in this context… Read More »

Financial Regulatory Suspensions and Debt Provision during the Covid-19 crisis

By | May 3, 2021

Policymakers and regulators have launched financial relief and rescue programs to promote economic recovery and alleviate household suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, prudential regulation for banks has been adjusted and it remains uncertain if such suspensions are temporary or entail longer-term effects. In our paper ‘Debt Expansion as “Relief and Rescue” at the Time of… Read More »

Unsecured to the Satisfaction

By | April 5, 2021

When engaging in 13(3) lending, the Federal Reserve must be “secured to [its] satisfaction,” which it has generally (and reasonably) taken to mean that its ex ante expectation should be that it will be fully repaid.i However, the Fed also interprets the legislative history of 13(3) as suggesting that this standard cannot be met with an entirely unsecured loan—a loan in which the Fed takes no collateral, third-party guarantee, or… Read More »

Bankruptcy, Bailout, or Bust: Early Corporate Responses to the Business and Financial Challenges of COVID-19

By | March 1, 2021

As the nation grapples with the profound human tragedy of COVID-19, U.S. companies have been feeling the business and economic impacts of the global public health crisis. Many companies have already filed for bankruptcy protection, while others have warned that they may need to liquidate or restructure. Business leaders from a wide range of industries… Read More »

Duke Eviction Prevention Working Group Letter to North Carolina Leaders

By | February 25, 2021

The following is a copy of a letter was recently sent to North Carolina Governor, Roy Cooper; North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore, Phil Berger; and North Carolina House Speaker, Tim Moore. This letter is written to you on behalf of the Eviction Prevention Working Group.  The Working Group was formed under the sponsorship of… Read More »

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Climate Change Risk and the Costs of Mortgage Credit

By | February 15, 2021

A new challenge: pricing climate risks  In recent remarks, financial regulators across the globe have stressed the importance of understanding the effect of climate risks on the financial system. In a statement released on November 9, 2020, Governor Lael Brainard of the U.S. Federal Reserve stressed the importance of lenders’ abilities to identify and measure the risks posed by climate change. In particular, she emphasizes the importance of moving “from… Read More »

The Pandemic Relief Bill and the Battle Over Federal Reserve Emergency Lending Authority

By | December 21, 2020

Negotiations over the just-released $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill got bogged down over the weekend due to the seemingly arcane matter of Federal Reserve emergency lending authority. For the millions of Americans who are in desperate need of financial assistance, this delay was unnecessary and needlessly cruel. Nor were frenzied negotiations around pandemic relief legislation… Read More »

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Policy Options for Preventing an Eviction Crisis

By | December 16, 2020

There have been several federal and state eviction moratoria since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. The current binding eviction moratorium is the CDC’s, which was implemented on September 1, 2020 and expires on December 31, 2020. This moratorium was implemented as a public health measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  Tenants… Read More »

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Do Institutional Investors Prevent the Market for Tokenized Assets from Failing? The Case of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

By | November 30, 2020

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are a relatively novel mechanism for entrepreneurs to raise capital by selling digital tokens to a crowd of investors. Tokens are cryptographically protected digital assets implemented on a blockchain, which is a novel approach to recording and transmitting data across a network in an immutable manner. ICOs are attractive for entrepreneurs… Read More »