Economic Letter

Bank supervisors monitor bank holding companies (BHCs) in order to enforce regulations and gauge their soundness so as to guard against systemic risk in the financial system. This monitoring is chiefly conducted using supervisory resources, such as bank examinations and quarterly filings of balance sheet information.

The late 1990s witnessed the emergence of the greatest speculative bubble in financial market history. Investors bid up stock prices to unprecedented valuation levels as they extrapolated a temporary surge in corporate earnings growth far into the future.

A key question for monetary policymakers, as well as participants in financial markets, is: “Where are interest rates headed?” In the long run, economists assume that nominal interest rates will tend toward some equilibrium, or “natural,” real rate of interest plus an adjustment for expected long-run inflation.

As the banking industry has consolidated in recent years, the number of banking organizations in the U.S. and in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District has declined dramatically. This consolidation trend raises public policy issues because of its implications for concentration and therefore competition in local banking markets.

The United States arguably is the world’s foremost producer of information technology (IT) products, and for many of these products, the U.S. defines the “leading edge,” or most advanced available technology. Within the U.S., the Twelfth District in particular specializes in IT production. However, amidst the current prolonged slowdown in worldwide IT spending, signs are emerging of a potential erosion of the U.S. competitive advantage.

One of the defining characteristics of the 2001 recession was the resilience of consumer expenditures. Many commentators have pointed to the housing market as one source of strength in consumption.

Last year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a remarkable report entitled A 125-Year Picture of the Federal Government’s Share of the Economy, 1950 to 2075. This report projects the future of government spending as a share of GDP assuming current policies remain in place, and the projections put forward are stunning: while the share has averaged about 19% since 1950, it is projected to rise drastically in coming decades, more than doubling to 39.7% by 2075.

The question in the title arises from looking at the ratio of patents issued to dollars spent on research and development (R&D). Patents often are thought of as the fruition of R&D spending and as measures of technological progress.