The Canadian economy continues to operate above its production capacity, despite some slowing in growth and inflation in the fourth quarter of 2007. Financial conditions have deteriorated since October, leading to tighter credit conditions in industrialized countries.
In this paper, the author considers whether fundamentals or other factors can explain the yen's ongoing weakness. In particular, the importance of capital outflows due to the carry trade and longer-term portfolio investment outflows, which may be delaying the adjustment of the yen, are investigated. A simple portfolio model is developed, composed of a speculative […]
The author provides an overview of carbon markets and explains how emissions trading can be important in encouraging the reduction of CO2 emissions in an efficient manner. He describes the key steps in establishing a cap-and-trade system, and reviews the European experiences with emissions trading. He highlights the lessons learned from the EU Emissions Trading […]
Section 5.1 of the Statement of Policy Governing the Acquisition and Management of Financial Assets for the Bank of Canada's Balance Sheet states that "The Bank's holdings of Government of Canada nominal bonds and treasury bills are structured to broadly reflect the composition of the federal government's stock of nominal domestic marketable debt."
Overall, firms remain positive about the outlook, with the results of the winter survey showing little change from those of the autumn survey. Nonetheless, firms reported more uncertainty in light of recent developments, most notably the volatility in the value of the Canadian dollar.
Starting with the winter 2007–08 survey, the results of two additional questions became included in the Business Outlook Survey (BOS) publication: the balance of opinion on past sales and the balance of opinion on credit conditions. This backgrounder briefly describes the two questions and presents the correlations between the responses and relevant economic data.
The paper examines three equity-based structural models to study the nonlinear relationship between equity and credit default swap (CDS) prices. These models differ in the specification of the default barrier.
Transparency is the cornerstone of a well-functioning financial system. It's an issue that has been getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so, as we consider what has gone wrong in the market for asset-backed commercial paper.