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The original Operation Twist: the War Finance Corporation's war bond purchases, 1918–1920

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  • Butkiewicz, James L.
  • Solcan, Mihaela

Abstract

In 1918 the United States Treasury delegated to the War Finance Corporation, a newly created off-budget federal agency, the task of buying Liberty bonds and later Victory notes in an effort to stabilize prices. Bayesian vector autoregression analysis of the security purchases indicates that the WFC purchases provided statistically significant price support, and marginally lowered bond yields while the program operated. Once WFC purchases ended, war bond yields increased substantially. Between bond issues, the Treasury financed its operations, including security purchases from the WFC, by issuing short-term debt, which affected the money market interest rate. The WFC's bond purchases are found to have a positive and significant impact on the call loan rate. Thus the WFC's bond purchases twisted the yield curve.

Suggested Citation

  • Butkiewicz, James L. & Solcan, Mihaela, 2016. "The original Operation Twist: the War Finance Corporation's war bond purchases, 1918–1920," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 21-46, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:fihrev:v:23:y:2016:i:01:p:21-46_00
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    Cited by:

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    3. Torres, Ernani & Zeidan, Rodrigo, 2016. "The life-cycle of national development banks: The experience of Brazil's BNDES," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 97-104.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N42 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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