Published:
Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2014
Published in:NBER working paper series ; no. w20755
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource
Language:
English
DOI:
10.3386/w20755
Identifier:
Reproduction note:
Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
Origination:
Footnote:
Mode of access: World Wide Web
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files
Description:
In this paper, we describe the evolution of the Federal Reserve's swap lines from their inception in 1962 as a mechanism to forestall claims on U.S gold reserves under Bretton Woods to a means of extending emergency dollar liquidity during the Great Recession. We describe a number of consequences associated with swap operations. We argue, for example, that swaps calm crisis situations by both supplementing foreign countries' dollar reserves and by signaling central-bank cooperation. We show how swaps exposed the Federal Reserve to conditionality and raised fears that they bypassed the Congressional appropriations process