Posted on 03/10/2008 6:15:48 PM PDT by shrinkermd
With worsening strains in credit markets threatening to deepen and prolong an incipient recession, analysts are speculating that the Federal Reserve may be forced to consider more innovative responses -- perhaps buying mortgage-backed securities directly.
"As credit stresses intensify, the possibility of unconventional policy options by the Fed has gained considerable interest
...Since 1932, the Fed has had the authority to lend, against collateral, to individuals, partnerships or corporations other than banks in "unusual and exigent circumstances," subject to the vote of five members of the Board of Governors. (The board has seven seats, but two are currently vacant.) This power has never been used.
Mr. Feroli noted that Congress in 1966 gave the Fed temporary authority, made permanent in 1979, to purchase obligations of government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
So far, the Fed hasn't purchased GSE obligations except in its short-term repurchase operations. When the federal budget was in surplus, the Fed considered outright purchases of GSE obligations, but judged against such a move as it would reinforce the perception of an implicit government guarantee.
Last week, the Fed said it would lend banks $100 billion starting this week in 28-day loans through its new Term Auction Facility, at which banks can post a wide variety of collateral, including mortgages, corporate loans and other items that have become harder to sell in the open market. And it said it would make money-market loans of as much as $100 billion to its network of 20 bond dealers for 28 days, double the usual maximum term, and structure them to encourage dealers to submit mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie Mac.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has suggested creating a new government corporation that could buy mortgage-backed securities
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
All excellent suggestions!
You would pay $5.00 a gallon the next morning, minimum.
Correct, that is because companies like Carlyle Group took their 645 million in assets and leveraged it into 21.7 BILLION in mortgage backed securities. NOw the crap they bought is worthless because the mortgages backing it are no doc, subprime, alt A or just plain fraudulent. They are getting margin calls and want to be bailed out. When they were aming money hand over fist with the same leverage, I don’t recall them complaining. The gov’t had a roll to play in preventing this kind of expansion in credit which Von Mises warned about 75 years ago. Apparently Greenspan and Co never read Von Mises, or didn’t believe him. We are paying the price of their folly.
One more point. Technology is making this happen at a speed which would have been unimaginable even a generation ago. We are facing a car wreck at 100 mph here and no one knows what to do.
You are right about Goldman, they were about the only one who did not drink CDO Kool Aid
We have only 11 months worth at that rate.
Not if you tell the world you will use the strategic petroleum reserve to replace the oil from Venezuela. In six months Hugo will be gone and we will buy their oil again.
That is well underway.
sorry we only import 15 mil bbls and I think we have 698 million bbls so roughly two years supply. Hugo will be gone long before then.
oops 1.5 mil for Venezuela
Please run for public office. If you can speak as well as you think, you will go very far.
Anyone who thinks our markets are hurting look at the Nikkei 225. It is down by 1/3 in the last year. makes our less than 20% trim seem tame by comaprison.
No one has the balls to do what any of you fine people have proscribed. So alas we are forced to watch as if from a lifeboat of the H.M.S. Titanic, powerless to save our country from this needless calamity.
and the band played on as the mighty ocean liner slipped beneath the waves. That is the feeling i get lately, about the economy, about Global Warming, about our energy policy, about our country.
Fortunately, Congressman Ron Paul has introduced legislation to restore financial stability to America's economy by abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Click here to contact your congressional representative and ask him/her to co-sponsor H.R. 2755.
“Do you think raising interest rates to slow the economy and then getting a slow economy is a free market?”
Do you think lowering interest rates to cause the subprime debacle, then raising them, then lowering them to cure the subprime debacle, sounds like anything but lunacy? A sound money requires fixed rules, not monkey boy games by the Fed.
The Weimar Money MachineTM.**
**Batteries and Wheelbarrow not included
Fortunately, Congressman Ron Paul has introduced legislation to restore financial stability to America's economy by abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Click here to contact your congressional representative and ask him/her to co-sponsor H.R. 2755.
The only part of that tax cut W did was the dividend cuts. An good idea which had been floating around Republican circles for decades. The rest was authored by former congressman Bill Thomas. W at that time sent Ari Fleischer out twice to say he was adamantly opposed to capital gains tax cuts. W's previous two demand side tax cuts designed to "put money in the hands of consumers" were total failures. Perhaps that's because we were in the middle of a historic decline in business spending while consumer spending was holding up well. W did his tax cuts for political reasons not economic ones. As far as economics goes, W is a willful moron.
We got a bull market
Yet the Nasdaq is still several hundred points below where it was when W took office, in spite of a severe correction before he got there. And now the eight year returns for the DOW and S&P aren't looking so good either.
and record revenue as a direct result.
Those revenues came from oil and commodity companies, government contractors, and the tax returns of government employees. All of which is unsustainable.
He doesn't deserve your carping, or everyone else's.
He deserves worse. He's one of the worst economic presidents ever. If it weren't for the wealth built during the Reagan era (which ended when W took office), we would be in really horrible shape, and if it weren't for Bill Thomas, W never would have won a second term.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.