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Nothing is easier than pointing fingers at policymakers working feverishly at 2 a.m. to contain a rapidly spreading financial crisis. Rarely has this been truer for the European Union than during the current crisis’s amateurish policy management. Yet, what really matters is the final result, which is far more positive for Europe than the ugly sausage-making process.

INTRODUCTION

Recent research has pointed the way to an exciting new direction for the theory of stock valuation. Moving beyond traditional dividend discounting models, dynamic models have emerged that provide greater structure by assuming explicit stochastic processes for the variables that in°uence stock value (see, e.g., Berk, Green, and Naik (1999), Ang and Liu (2001), and Bakshi and Ju (2002)).

Friedman’s Monetary Framework: Some Lessons
Ben S. Bernanke

It is an honor and a pleasure to have this opportunity, on the anniversary of Milton and Rose Friedman’s popular classic, Free to Choose, to speak on Milton Friedman’s monetary framework and his contributions to the theory and practice of monetary policy.

INTRODUCTION

I have always had a love of business, even when I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. Reality set in at my first in-house position,
during the height of an industry slump. That job taught me what often defines the life of corporate positions: being ‘‘overhead.’’ I learned that when times get tough, overhead gets going (right out the door).

The nearly quarterly demands to trim our already meager ranks were also accompanied by the question, ‘‘What, exactly, is it that you do?’’ This hard lesson spurred a journey to prove that what an in-house lawyer does is something worthwhile for business.

Overview
Securitization is a structured finance technique in which marketable debt securities are created from pools of cash-flow producing financial assets. The cash flows generated by the pool of underlying assets are used to make interest payments and to repay the principal of the securitized bond.

Real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) with excess cash frequently invest it in money market mutual funds as a secure, higher-yield alternative to traditional bank deposits. Such money market investments may, however, run afoul of REIT asset holding requirements.

The U.S. economy, mired in the worst recession in decades, has caused unprecedented fiscal challenges for many municipalities grappling with declining revenues (e.g. income, sales and property tax receipts) and higher borrowing costs.

However, in recent months, conditions in the tax-exempt municipal bond market have improved for both issuers and investors, in part due to a stimulus lifeline sent by the U.S. government earlier this year in the form of Build America Bonds.