Re: Current Federal Reserve balance sheets

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ethan Ackerman" <eackerma () u washington edu>
Date: September 26, 2008 10:55:49 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Current Federal Reserve balance sheets
Reply-To: eackerma () u washington edu

Greetings Dave,

In light of previous posts, IP may be interested in additional
financial data about the Federal Reserve system.

The Federal Reserve publishes a significant amount of statistical data
on the economy and member banks -
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/

This includes a weekly report abbreviated " H.4.1 " and long-named
""Factors Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions and
Condition Statement of Federal Reserve Banks"
   http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/Current/h41.pdf

In other words, its the Fed's balance sheet, beginning on p.4.
It does show some significant shifts in several categories but the net
assets remain greater than the net liabilities to the tune of
$41Billion, even when the BearStearns loan is fully accounted for as
though it were held by the NY Reserve Bank and marked to market.




On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 9:36 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Tobin Maginnis <ptm () pix cs olemiss edu>
> Date: September 26, 2008 9:12:22 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: The Federal Reserve (a private bank) is broke
>
> The Federal Reserve bank is illiquid. That is the fear and urgency
> factors we are seeing at work on Capital Hill, and its the reason no  
> one
> will discuss why the bailout is needed.
>
> 1) As of two weeks ago, the Fed had lent out more than $600 billion of
> its $800 billion total reserve Treasuries.
> 2) In return, the Federal Reserve bank accepted Mortgage Backed
> Securities (MBS) as collateral for these loans. Unfortunately, these
> MBSs have been shown, in other sales, to worth about $0.10 on the  
> dollar.
> 3) In the last two weeks the Federal Reserve bank has increased its
> "other loans" to the financial system by around $230 billion (from
> $23.56b to $262.34b).
> 4) The Fed also increased its "other assets" (took in more MBSs) by
> about $80b (from $98.67b to $183.89b).
> 5) Increased the securities it lends out to dealers by $60b (from
> $117.3b to $190.5b);
>
> Thus, if we subtract the $370 billion given out in the last two weeks
> from the Federal Reserve balance of $200 billion, that leaves a
> approximate balance of *negative $170 billion*. There is a simple term
> for this condition: the Federal Reserve (a private bank) is broke.
>
> The $700 billion Paulson Plan will allow Wall Street banks to buy back
> the MBS (at inflated "mark-to-maturity" prices) held by the Fed  
> thereby
> return Treasury notes to the Federal Reserve. This process allows
> capitalization of the Wall Street firms and banks, giving them some
> breathing room to stay in business. Everyone wins except the poor
> American taxpayer.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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