The interventions we've had to date have, by any standard, been massive, yet have failed to bring lasting relief. The idea that a $700 baillout bill is a "comprehensive solution" seems more than a tad optimistic. From Brad Setser:
In the last two weeks — if I am reading the Federal Reserves’ balance sheet data correctly — the Fed has:
Increased “other loans” to the financial system by around $230 billion (from $23.56b to $262.34b);
Increased its “other assets” by about $80b (from $98.67b to $183.89b);
Increased the securities it lends out to dealers by $60b (from $117.3b to $190.5b);
That works out to the provision of something like $370b of credit to the financial system in a two week period. That may be a bit too high: the outstanding stock of repos felll by $40b (from $126b to $ 86b), leaving a $330b net change in these line items. But that is still enormous.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Credit Markets Predictably Not Happy Right Now
Posted by Editor at 2:22 PM
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