Archive for the ‘Fed’ Category
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Q: What is $11.4 trillion?
(Click image to enlarge in new window)
And today Treasury announced it will sell $104 billion of debt next week, a new record. CNBC:
The Treasury announced Thursday a record $104 billion worth of bond auctions for next week, part of its herculean efforts to finance a rescue ...
Posted in debt, Fed, treasury | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
OA has noted P Krugman's insistence that the Fed/Treasury use all the tools at their disposal to keep us from falling into another Depression. We've yet to see any thorough discussion, however, of the consequences of such action. He admits deficits are a "long-term" problem, that we need a plan ...
Posted in Economy, Fed, inflation | 4 Comments »
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Good news in money printing land. The presses, for the moment, have slowed. Despite the spike in Treasury rates (and consequently mortgages), the Fed has resisted the temptation to beef up asset purchases. [Recall that the basic idea of quantitative easing is to print money to buy bonds in order ...
Posted in Fed, inflation, Interest Rates | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
So much for de-leveraging.
The Fed published its latest Flow of Funds report today. One key takeaway: While total debt is growing more slowly, it is still growing. Since Q3 '08 households have cut their debt (slightly), but the federal government is borrowing so rapidly, overall debt continues to expand.
(Click chart ...
Posted in debt, Economy, Fed, housing, leverage, politics, taxpayer issues, treasury | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
The long-time publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer notes, among other things, that
"If the Fed examiners were set upon the Fed's own documents—unlabeled documents—to pass judgment on the Fed's capacity to survive the difficulties it faces in credit, it would shut this institution down," he said. "The Fed is undercapitalized ...
Posted in Fed | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Or: Why Stimulus Won't Stimulate....(Bloomberg)
The biggest price swings in Treasury bonds this year are undermining Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cap consumer borrowing rates and pull the economy out of the worst recession in five decades.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.90 percent ...
Posted in Fed, Interest Rates, treasury | 9 Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
From Bloomberg: U.S. Mortgage Rates Jump to Highest Since December
Fixed U.S. mortgage rates jumped to the highest level this year, signaling the Federal Reserve’s plan to lower borrowing costs has stalled.
The average 30-year rate rose to 5.29 from 4.91 percent a week earlier, Freddie Mac, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer, ...
Posted in Fed, housing | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
From Ben Bernanke's prepared testimony before Congress today.
On the need to control deficits:
Certainly, our economy and financial markets face extraordinary near-term challenges, and strong and timely actions to respond to those challenges are necessary and appropriate. Nevertheless, even as we take steps to address the recession and threats to financial ...
Posted in debt, Fed | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Back in February, amidst the neo-Keynesian rage to spend our way out of recession, I argued that stimulus wouldn't stimulate. Pointing to the graph of the 10-year Treasury vs. 30-year mortgage rates I said that the government wouldn't be able to flood the market with Treasurys without driving up interest ...
Posted in debt, deflation, depression, Economy, Fed, inflation, Interest Rates | 14 Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Public Debt Outstanding is approaching $11.3 trillion...
Click chart to enlarge in new window
...and fears about this growing debt burden helped drive the dollar to a 4-month low today. Bigger contributors to the dollar's fall included comments from the Bank of Japan, which said it wouldn't prop up greenbacks. Also, S&P's ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
From today's speech by Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker:
The use of the financial safety net in the last two years has exceeded any historical precedent in the United States and amounts to a dramatic expansion of the depth and breadth of explicit and perceived government protection from financial risk. I ...
Posted in Fed | 3 Comments »
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
WSJ reports that after "intense bargaining," the Fed "significantly scaled back" its estimates for banks' capital shortfalls. Indicative of this was the unexpected change in its methodology for measuring bank capital. Instead of tangible common equity, the Fed used a less stringent measure it calls "Tier 1 Common Capital," heretofore ...
Posted in bailout, banking, Fed, leverage, politics | 7 Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
More great work from WSJ...
Stephen Friedman, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board of directors, has resigned effectively immediately.
Mr. Friedman notified New York Fed President William Dudley and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke of his decision, in a letter Thursday. Mr. Friedman, who was the subject of ...
Posted in Fed, Wall Street | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
From the Fed Chairman's testimony to Congress today:
We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year. Key elements of this forecast are our assessments that the housing market is beginning to stabilize and that the sharp inventory liquidation that has been in progress ...
Posted in Fed | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Different stress test results are being leaked every day. First Citi was reported to need capital, then BofA, then Regions and KeyCorp, then Wells, then as many as 14 of the 19 being tested. Now Treasury/Fed seem to have settled on 10 needing capital. But the official announcement is still ...
Posted in banking, FDIC, Fed, leverage, treasury, Wall Street | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
I've always wondered the location of the national debt "clock." Yesterday, I stumbled upon it totally accidentally, near the southwest corner of 44th Street and 6th Avenue here in NYC. And the figure is pretty close to Treasury's official total (see link below).
But I digress. On to the (good) news: ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
According to a report late last night from Bloomberg, six of the nineteen banks that were stress tested by the Fed will need to raise additional capital. Two of the six are known: Citi and BofA.* Both are appealing the ruling. The other four banks aren't known, but SunTrust, KeyCorp ...
Posted in banking, Fed, taxpayer issues, treasury, Wall Street | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
A must-listen radio report from American Public Radio regarding yesterday's revelations that Bernanke and Paulson forced BofA to close its deal for Merrill.
REPORTER: If Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke really told the CEO of Bank of America to keep quiet about losses at Merrill Lynch, they were probably breaking the ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 14 Comments »
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
After slowing earlier this year, the Fed's printing press is again running full speed.
According to its latest balance sheet, average assets increased $70.4 billion to $2.22 trillion. The increase was due primarily to $75 billion of mortgage-backed securities purchases this week and $14.1 billion of Treasury purchases. (Central bank swap ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data here.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $65.9 billion this week to $11.22 trillion. We're well ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data here.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $42.1 billion this week to $11.15 trillion.
(Click to enlarge)
According ...
Posted in Fed, treasury | 5 Comments »
Saturday, April 4th, 2009
Below are clips of Bill Moyers' must watch interview with Bill Black, a top regulator during the S&L Scandal. Black's biography is here. At the bottom of the post are a few quotes worth highlighting...
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Our [financial] system...became a Ponzi scheme. Everybody was buying a pig in the ...
Posted in bailout, banking, Fed, treasury, Wall Street | 9 Comments »
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data here.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $72.8 billion to $11.1 trillion since last week.
(Click chart ...
Posted in debt, Fed, taxpayer issues | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
I will be updating this info each week in order to track fiscal and monetary policy from a bird's eye view. (For those interested, a tutorial regarding this data from last week's post.)
According to the Treasury Dept., Total U.S. Public Debt Outstanding increased $12.7 billion since last week.
(Click charts to ...
Posted in debt, Fed, inflation, taxpayer issues | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Here's the press release from the Treasury Dept. I've created a simple chart below to explain the plan. Click to enlarge it.
There are a few things that should be highlighted, in particular the amount of leverage being provided by government and the fact that these partnerships will be able to ...
Posted in bailout, banking, FDIC, Fed, leverage, taxpayer issues | 1 Comment »
