Dick Selma played for five teams over a largely undistinguished ten-year Major League career. The 1970 Philadelphia Phillies finished fifth in their division, only a half game out of last place. That was also the third in a string of seven straight losing seasons for the Phils. Somehow though, this journeyman pitcher on a mediocre…

Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Michael Barr recently previewed “broad and material changes” to the Basel Endgame capital proposal. Summarizing changes to a 1,000-page proposal in a 24-minute speech will leave out a lot of details. However, we can get a good sense of the proposed changes based on what we already know about the old proposal…

Policy debates about banking regulation often revolve around an understanding (and occasionally misunderstanding) of bank capital. While capital can be the most important indicator of a bank’s financial strength, the concept is not always well understood. Some assumptions about capital adequacy rely more on folk wisdom than evidence. Here are six observations about bank capital.…