Home > Publications > Economic Research > Region Focus > Fall 2007

Region Focus

Fall 2007

Full Issue

Read Issue (PDF 7.64MB)

Cover Story

Downtown is Dead. Long Live Downtown: America is busy rebuilding its downtowns. But these are not the downtowns of yesterday

Downtowns today may not be for everybody. They are a niche product, likely geared to a certain demographic or two, and whose broader payoffs are important to the city. Downtowns are really being reinvented rather than restored to their former glory.

Read Article (PDF 399KB)

View Related Links

Features

Armed Against ARMs: Educating low-income borrowers may be an effective — if oft-overlooked — way to help stabilize the mortgage market

The focus on the role of mortgage brokers and Wall Street — and even on regulators in the recent decline of the subprime housing market — is richly deserved. But another player deserves attention: borrowers.

Read Article (PDF 136KB)

View Related Links

Professional Prognosticators: Is forecasting a science or an art?

Models of all stripes can never perfectly predict the future because they are not exact replicas of the actual economy. To get an accurate forecast, you need information that gets closer to the current state of affairs.

Read Article (PDF 183KB)

View Related Links

Runs Make the Bank: The fragile capital structure of banks makes them inevitably prone to runs, and that's a good thing

Economists with ties to the Richmond Fed study how a bank's distinctive asset and liability structure is precisely what allows the bank to provide liquidity at all times; that is, to make funds available to both long-term borrowers and short-term depositors whenever a need arises.

Read Article (PDF 251KB)

View Related Links

PHOTOGRAPHY: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Crash: In Virginia, private insurers test vehicles for safety

A nonprofit, private-sector organization performs functions that one might otherwise assume would be done by the government. Insurers who fund the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety see returns on their investments in other ways beyond goodwill.

Read Article (PDF 251KB)