Term structure intermediation, in which institutions purchase assets and sell liabilities of different maturities, is analyzed theoretically and the results are applied to current policy issues. The theoretical model allows the identification of alternative reasons for mismatched portfolios, including risk-loving utility functions, interest rate forecasts that differ from the market's forward rates, and risk premia in the yield curve. The risk premia case appears empirically relevant, and intermediation in which lending is long (earning the risk premium) and borrowing is short (not paying a risk premium) may offset capital market imperfections. But such intermediation is also risky, creating a dilemma for bank regulators

Yields on short-term prime-grade municipals vary through time in relation to after-corporate-tax yields on short-term U.S. Treasury securities. The pattern is not related to the default premium in municipal yields or to the historical ceiling on bank deposit rates (Regulation Q). However, there is a strong link to the default premium in corporate yields and to municipal holdings by large commercial banks. These findings suggest that taxable and tax-exempt markets are linked both by the capital-structure decisions of firms and by the tax-arbitrage activities of banks

Now available directly from: IIE11 Dupont Circle, NWWashington, DC 20036Tel: (202) 328-9000This book traces the origins of international debt and recent trends that burden it, including the effect of oil price shocks, high interest rates, and world recession. It examines the extent of the financial system's vulnerability, and the adequacy of bank regulation and of central bank coverage for emergency lending to international banks.Recent international rescue measures mounted for the major developing countries are discussed, and the prospects for orderly servicing of the debt during the next three years are reviewed under alternative assumptions about world economic conditions to determine whether the problem is one of short-term illiquidity or longer-term insolvency. The book also notes the implications of reduced bank lending for growth in developing countries and, by induced effects on trade, in industrial countries. It considers mainstream policy measures, especially increasing the resources of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, as well as more radical proposals, such as mandatory stretch-outs and write-downs of bank loans