Blog Posts

Many millennials fear that they aren’t saving—or aren’t saving enough—for retirement. Can gamification help the largest generation in the United States labor force level-up their financial savvy to achieve budget and savings goals?

Foreign holding of onshore Chinese securities is expanding rapidly from a small base. Over the past year, overseas investment in Chinese A-share stocks has gained momentum after the MSCI decided to add Chinese A-shares to the MSCI index family. This development will enhance the already growing interconnectedness between Chinese capital markets and the rest of the world.

The search is on for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s next president and CEO.

The demographics of aging have long been studied as a key driver of investment behavior in capital markets, as changes in life stage alter investor preferences. Asia is home to countries with a diverse range of demographic profiles, with several rapidly aging countries like Japan, Korea, and China, and younger populations in India and Indonesia. Building upon other research into the relationship between demographics and capital markets, this post considers how aging may impact the region.

Domestic bond issuance in China declined in 2017. Growth in outstanding onshore bonds and trading volume also moderated. Notwithstanding the lackluster performance, the products offered by the Chinese bond market continued to grow in sophistication. The investor base has also become more diversified as overseas investors and non-bank domestic investors play a bigger role. These developments will likely contribute to the resilience of the bond market in the long run.

In 2017, natural disasters caused $306.2 billion of damage nationally. Yet little is known about the impacts of natural disasters on small businesses, which are a critical engine of the American economy and are responsible for creating two out of three new private-sector jobs. A new report fills this gap by examining data from the latest round of the Federal Reserve System’s Small Business Credit Survey and provides insight on the impact of natural disasters on small businesses and their related needs.

Despite a tight labor market, an unusually large number of workers who want full-time positions are still stuck in part-time jobs. Rather than reflecting lingering effects from the past recession, this appears to be a permanent shift arising from changes in the types of jobs that are available.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco announced today that its president and chief executive officer, John C. Williams, will be leaving the bank to assume the presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Sci-fi movies and novels predict virtual reality and artificial intelligence will lead humanity to an inevitably dystopian future. But what if game design thinking, including principles used to create virtual worlds, was used for global-scale social good?

The upcoming waves of baby boomer retirements could push down U.S. equity markets according to the strong historical relationship between the age distribution of the population and stock market performance. However, that relationship appeared to break down after 2011. Is the stock market due for a demographic-induced correction?