Debt Management and Zero Lower Bound

October 1st, 2014

On September 30, 2014, Summers presented a co-authored paper titled, “Government Debt Management at the Zero Lower Bound,” at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. 

Watch the event here:

You can read the paper here and or view the graphics here.

 Additional coverage of the event:

Now as Provocateur, Summers Says Treasury Undermined Fed

NYTimes.com – The Upshot – In a paper presented Tuesday at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Summers and three co-authors argued that the crosswinds had reduced the Fed’s impact by about a third, slowing growth and leaving more Americans jobless.

Time for Treasury to Consider More Short-Term Debt?

WSJ – Real Time Economics – [Mary Miller’s] comments came at a conference hosted by the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, a center within the Brookings Institution. At the conference, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and three co-authors argued the Treasury should issue more short-term debt relative to long-term debt, because it would reduce the government’s financing costs with little risk.

Summers chides critics of debt management proposal

Politico Pro – Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary and one-time contender to lead the Federal Reserve, on Tuesday lambasted critics of a proposal he co-authored that suggested Treasury and the Fed should coordinate on managing the country’s debt. One of Summers’ targets: current Fed Governor Jerome Powell. At a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, Powell said the proposal is “fraught with risk” for the Fed and could call into question the central bank’s independence.

Fed and Treasury Worked Against Each Other on Interest Rates

Fiscal Times – The Fed wound up purchasing well over $1 trillion in securities from 2008 on, in a program that is only just being wound down. But a new study from four Harvard economists, including former Treasury Secretary and head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Larry Summers, found that the Treasury Department may have been making the Fed’s job much more difficult — and expensive. The paper was presented Tuesday at the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy.

Treasury may shorten maturity of government debt: former official

MarketWatch – “For now, the decision has been to continue on the path that we are on,” Miller said at a conference sponsored by the Brookings Institution. “But I wouldn’t be surprised in coming years if it was revisted,” Miller said.

Noted for Your Afternoon Procrastination for September 30, 2014

Brad DeLong blogMust- and Shall-Reads: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Joshua S. Rudolph and Lawrence H. Summers: Government Debt Management at the Zero Lower Bound

NEW PAPER FINDS TREASURY POLICIES COUNTERACTED QE

International Strategy and Investment – The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department worked in opposite directions when it came to managing federal debt securities, argues a new paper from the Brookings Institution co-authored by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.  The full paper is available here…