Description

The rapid transmission of the U. S. subprime mortgage crisis to other financial markets in the United States and abroad during the second half of 2007 raises some important questions. In particular, through which mechanisms were the liquidity shocks transmitted across U.S. financial markets during this period? What was the relative strength of these potential linkages? Did the episode of funding illiquidity in structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and conduits turn into an issue of bank insolvency? Conceptually, a number of transmission mechanisms are likely to have been established during the recent period of turbulence, either through increased market illiquidity, funding illiquidity, or even default risks. The relative strength of the interaction among these factors during the subprime crisis of 2007 is an empirical question, which is analyzed below.