U.S. bailout has pledged $11.6 trillion as of September 25th 2009 compared to $7.4 trillion as of November 24th 2008. Although down from $12.8 trillion on March 31st 2009. The Federal Reserve sharing a $5.8 trillion portion as of September 25th …

US Bailout Pledge up from $7.4 to $11.6 trillion Read more »

As outlined by the Federal Reserve on their Web Site Overall Functions of the Federal Reserve: Monetary Policy             Goals and Guides             Implementation Foreign Currency Operations Supervision, Regulation and Consumer Protection U.S. Government Payments FRB – The Federal Reserve …

High Level Functions of the Federal Reserve Briefly Outlined Read more »

As central banks around the globe attempt to implement monetary policy and manage their respective fiat currencies, speculation is being made that they will become net buyers of gold rather than net sellers.  Since the significant breakdown of the Bretton …

Central Banks becoming Net Buyers of Gold Read more »

On January 16th 2009, Bank of America (BofA) disclosed with its first ever quarterly loss of $1.79 billion, a US government loan backstop for $118 billion on assets mostly from its government encouraged Merrill Lynch acquisition1. The loan backstop is …

Bank of America Loan Backstop Read more »

Investors applied for a total of $6.5 billion in loans from the Federal Reserve through their Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) emergency lending program. The TALF program provides low interest loans to investors for purchasing securities backed by auto, …

TALF Program Update – $6.54 Billion in Loans Read more »

Bloomberg News unit sued the Federal Reserve under the Freedom of Information Act for a list of companies in their emergency lending programs .  The emergency lending programs created last year by the Federal Reserve contains near $2 trillion in loans. …

Court Orders Federal Reserve to Disclose Details Read more »

The Federal Reserve announced on Aug 17th it would extend the emergency rescue loan program, Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) with capacity of up to $1 trillion, by another 3 to 6 months.  The Fed and Treasury justify this …

Federal Reserve TALF Program Extended Read more »

Federal Reserve Liquidity Swap Lines  There are two types of Liquidity Swaps the Federal Reserve by way of the Federal Open Market Committee has established: Dollar Liquidity Swap Lines and Foreign-Currency Liquidity Swap Lines.   Dollar Liquidity Swap Lines A …

Federal Reserve Liquidity Swaps Explained Read more »

On Tuesday, August 11th, the Federal Reserve purchased an additional $2.7 billion of US Department of Treasury bonds maturing from August 2026 through May 2039, essentially 17-30 year bond maturity dates. In March, the Federal Reserve stated it would purchase up …

Fed has purchased $252 billion of Treasuries Read more »

The two day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting ended today.  Fed official press release linked below. The majority of monetary policy programs stayed the same.  Fed Funds rate will continue to be held at a record low of 0 – 1/4% …

Fed Follows Through with Quantitative Easing Program Read more »

CNN Money is maintaining a great resource tracking all the bailout money. For an overall comprehensive list of all the bailout programs by Congress, Treasury and the Fed List of 650 banks, so far, which have received bailout money List of 94 …

Bailout Money Tracker – CNN Money Read more »

Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility – Definition and Explanation “The Federal Reserve created the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), to help market participants meet the credit needs of households and small businesses by supporting the issuance of asset-backed securities …

TALF – Definition and Explanation Read more »

Unconventional monetary policy announced by the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee on March 18 2009: “To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the Committee decided today to increase the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet further …

Federal Reserve purchase of GSE Debt and Securities Read more »

Current accounting of the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet as of July 30th 2009 $695.758 billion – U.S. Treasury Securities $105.915 billion – Federal Agency Debt Securities $542.888 billion – Mortgage-backed Securities $274.085 billion – Direct Bank Lending (Loans through Discount …

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet as of July 30th 2009 Read more »