Category Archives: Federal Reserve

Alan Greenspan’s Disingenuous Financial Times Comment

Alan Greenspan had a brief moment when he seemed capable of being redeemed, when he admitted before Congress that he was wrong about his assumptions that firms could regulate themselves. I have yet to see another central figure in the banking meltdown admit error. But he has now gone back to trying to salvage burnish […]

Willem Buiter Takes Fed and Treasury to Task

Not that they listen to him, sadly. Buiter famously told the Fed in a presentation at its Jackson Hole conference that it was guilty of cognitive regulatory capture. Buiter argues that the games the Fed and Treasury are playing, with the Fed providing loans and guarantees that properly should come from the Treasury, is bad […]

Fed Rescue Programs: No Exit?

The Wall Street Journal tonight, in “As It Starts Programs, Fed Weighs How to Stop Them,” broaches the touchy subject of how Federal Reserve unwinds all the “support lending” initiatives it has underway and is on the verge of launching. In general, this piece is more wary of party line than the typical WSJ offering, […]

On the Fed’s "Shock and Awe"

When some deemed the Fed’s move today to expand its balance sheet by as much as a trillion dollars plus as “shock and awe”, I recalled that when that term was first used, at the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq. The notion was a display of superior force would lead to quick capitulation. […]

Bernanke on 60 Minutes

Too much corn pone personal story, not enough real interview. But I must say, Bernanke is either an astoundingly self contained man or is on the best meds modern science has to offer. Paul Kedrosky thinks this appearance is either wildly bullish or wildly bearish, and is somewhat inclined to the former view. I see […]

AIG Posts List of Beneficiaries of Government Largesse Counterparties

As foretold, Goldman tops the list. From the Financial Times (hat tip reader Dwight): AIG paid out $22.4bn of collateral related to credit default swaps, $27.1bn to help cancel swaps and another $43.7bn to satisfy the obligations of its securities lending operation. The payments were made between September 16 and the end of last year. […]

Citi and Federal Government in New Non-Rescue Rescue Talks

The double-speak in this Wall Street Journal piece, “U.S. Weighs Further Steps for Citi.” is so thick that parsing it is like wading through mud. And I do mean to stress the attempts to obfuscate what is going on. Recall that the last retrade of Citi’s arrangement with the officialdom was initiated by the big […]

Quelle Surprise! Who Gained From AIG Rescues? Goldman (and Deutsche) Tops the List (and Willer Buiter is REALLY Angry!)

Even though I often take on the Wall Street Journal’s depiction of new stories, the flip side is that it does break significant news stories. Today is one of those days, although I wonder about an item this juicy hitting the wires on a Friday evening. Remember that the reason for shoring up AIG was […]

Is the Treasury Planning on a Near Term Recovery in Bank Stocks?

Reader M&M called my attention to a Bloomberg story I was really hoping to avoid, “U.S. Sets a Six-Month Deadline for New Bank Capital“. The opening: The government set a six-month deadline for the biggest 19 U.S. banks to raise any new capital deemed necessary after a mandatory review of their balance sheets. The regulators […]

Greenspan Predicts TARP Will Prove Insufficient, Supports Bank Nationalization

Before readers start throwing brickbats at the mention of the name of Alan Greenspan, it’s important to remember that he has become the poster boy of the policy errors that lead to our financial mess. And that isn’t an accurate picture. This crisis had many parents, and even though Greenspan was one of the key […]

Geithner Plan Smackdown Wrap

I cannot recall a major US policy initiative being met with as much immediate revulsion as the so-called Geithner plan. Even the horrific TARP, which showed utter contempt for Congress and the American public was in some ways less troubling. Paulson demanded $700 billion, nearly $200 billion bigger than the Department of Defense, via a […]

Bond Investors Call Fed’s Bluff

Even a casual market observer like your humble blogger has noticed the dramatic increase in Treasury bond yields from 2.5% on the 30 year bond to over 3.5% in a bit more than a month. I had assumed that the Fed, at its last FOMC meeting, would shed a bit of light on its December […]

Steve Keen: "The Roving Cavaliers of Credit" (or Why Ben’s Helicopter Will Fail)

Readers responded with great enthusiasm the last time I hoisted a big chunk of material from Australian economist Steve Keen’s blog (see “Bernanke an Expert on the Great Depression?” )I was therefore quite gratified when he wrote asking me to cross post his latest piece. Keen is a fiercely independent thinker, and has other qualities […]

Pimco’s Gross Calls for US to Spend Trillions to Save the Economy

The financial services industry is full cry in its demands for taxpayers to save its hide. From Bloomberg: Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth. “This economy needs support from the government, a […]

The Fed’s Bear Stearns Assets: "No Prospect for a Profit"

Your humble blogger, and the vast majority of readers have been pretty skeptical of the notion that the Fed could absorb $29 billion of risk on $30 billion of dodgy Bear Stearns assets and come out whole (JP Morgan takes the loss on the first billion and change). Despite reports from the Fed showing no […]