Press Briefing

Jan 14, 2010

Banks and financial intermediation in emerging Asia: reforms and new risks, by Madhusudan Mohanty and Philip Turner
BIS Working Papers No 313, June 2010
http://www.bis.org/publ/work313.htm
The conventional view is that microeconomic reforms after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis have greatly strengthened banking systems in Asia. Banks have become better capitalised, external exposures have been reduced and credit risk has been managed more effectively. But this conventional view does not take enough account of the macroeconomic background. A sharp rise in domestic savings, combined with the recent large-scale sterilised intervention and easy monetary policy, has led to very easy financing conditions for banks. Bank credit expanded. Banks have accumulated a large stock of government bonds. How these conditions will change and how this will affect banks in Asia is uncertain. Supervisory authorities therefore need to be sure that the present very liquid position of most banking systems in Asia does not allow significant (but so far only latent) increases in market and credit risk to go undetected.

Obama's Foreign Policy Success - He has repaired our alliances, isolated Iran, unnerved Chávez, and he is systematically destroying al Qaeda in a way Bush never did
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575297002717908716.html

David Souter's Bad Constitutional History - The former justice's logic would justify Plessy v. Ferguson
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300740568539352.html

The White House Blog - A New Health Care Survey and the Affordable Care Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/14/a-new-health-care-survey-and-affordable-care-act

The Gulf Spill, the Financial Crisis and Government Failure - Both Republicans and Democrats fail to see the limits of centralized regulation in a modern market economy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575296873167457684.html

State Dept: Anniversary of Iran’s Disputed Presidential Election
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/iran_disputed_presidential_election

California Union Rebuke - Voters rebel against project labor deals that raise costs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575296750368098756.html

How to prevent huge teacher layoffs. By Christina D. Romer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052604597.html

Hillary on Honduras - An education in Latin democracy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703302604575294660183221400.html

The White House Blog - Focusing on the Gulf
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/12/focusing-gulf

Lula's Dance With the Despots - The president of Brazil is preserving his country's unfortunate image as a resentful, Third-World ankle-biter
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300694085699092.html

America's Municipal Debt Racket - State and local borrowing as a percentage of U.S. GDP has risen to an all-time high of 22% in 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270802154485456.html

Politicizing the Fed - Congress seeks more control over the 12 regional banks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575297130299281828.html