Ben who?

renman95

A recap of Ben's "wonderful" job at the Fed.


"As of Feb. 1, 2006, when Bernanke took over as chairman, the Fed’s balance sheet indicated it owned $748,840,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities. At that time, the balance sheet listed no mortgage-backed securities. As of Jan. 29, 2013, the balance sheet indicated the Fed owned $2,243,176,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and $1,532,224,000,000 in mortgage-backed securities."

What's the plan to reverse course?

PerryHall

<< <i>A recap of Ben's "wonderful" job at the Fed.


"As of Feb. 1, 2006, when Bernanke took over as chairman, the Fed’s balance sheet indicated it owned $748,840,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities. At that time, the balance sheet listed no mortgage-backed securities. As of Jan. 29, 2013, the balance sheet indicated the Fed owned $2,243,176,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and $1,532,224,000,000 in mortgage-backed securities."

What's the plan to reverse course? >>


You are assuming there is a plan.

bronco2078

<< <i>A recap of Ben's "wonderful" job at the Fed.


"As of Feb. 1, 2006, when Bernanke took over as chairman, the Fed’s balance sheet indicated it owned $748,840,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities. At that time, the balance sheet listed no mortgage-backed securities. As of Jan. 29, 2013, the balance sheet indicated the Fed owned $2,243,176,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities and $1,532,224,000,000 in mortgage-backed securities."

What's the plan to reverse course? >>




That 1.53 trillion is the face value of the MBS on the books. I think if you add up the weekly totals of MBS NET purchases over the length of QE it would be double that. That would mean they were 50% down on that portion of the portfolio.

CaptHenway

Ben Dover?

jmski52

Maybe the Fed (whose private membership and closely-held assets are unknown) have decided that the best investment in the world is US Treasuries and they've simply decided to own them - massive, massive amounts of them. After all, the US Government is good for it, aren't they/we?

Can't come up with the cash to pay off all these Treasuries? No problem? We'll start with all the government-owned properties. What else ya got?

ricko

You do not really think there is a plan to reverse this do you?? This is not reversible, it will take a major upheaval and total change of economics, resulting in a new beginning - at some point. Cheers, RickO

derryb

I believe FED held US treasuries will be like the trillion dollar coin - nothing more than symbolic. They are IOU's created by congress approval and backed by congress approved new money that was created out of thin air. While they are carried on the FED's balance sheet the FED did not fork out it's own money to cover them as did outside bond holders. The FED stands to lose nothing. They will continue to be carried on the FED's book because simply erasing them would expose the game. FED purchased US debt is a cover for the real thing - simply printing money to pay the bills. Involving the FED gives the appearance of legitimate borrowing. If this scheme had been instituted much earlier the US wouldn't be so heavily in real debt that other debt holders do expect to recover. The downside to the new game is acceleration of dollar destruction because of the funny money involved.

There is a very good possibility that in order to appease major foreign holders of US debt that are seeing destruction of the value of that debt, the US has provided compensation in other areas such as arranging the half price sale of JPM's NY building that houses the worlds largest vault. An engineered fire sale on gold would also serve to satisfy unhappy creditors - just look at who has been scooping it up at current prices. I find it hard to believe that China is not demanding something in return for the deliberate loss of it's investment in US bonds. The fact that they even continue to buy some (not as much as in the past) of the debt should be raising some eyebrows.