Banking

Archive for Banking

Bernanke Bask

Hey kids, I am 95% sure that in December 2008 Ben Bernanke was called before Congress to testify about all the emergency loan programs etc. They asked him to divulge the names of the recipients of the loans, and he said no, it would defeat the purpose of the program (because investors/depositors would dump weak […]

Krugman and Yglesias Get Tough on Bankers–After It Doesn’t Matter

Matt Yglesias recently posed as brave battler of bank bailouts (referring to the case of Iceland), and Krugman high-fived him. Yglesias literally wrote an article titled, “In Praise of TARP.” Here’s an excerpt of my latest at Mises CA: It’s ironic that they now strike this pose, given their behavior since 2008. There was a […]

At This Point, I’m Pretty Sure Rand Paul Doesn’t Know Much Accounting

OK I was giving him the benefit of the doubt when, in his speech in Des Moines, Rand Paul said “assets” when he meant “equity.” But then for a written piece for Breitbart–which appeared 4 days after the speech, and so presumably Paul and his staff had seen how people on Bloomberg etc. pounced on his misstatement […]

A Possible Scenario In Which the SNB Wouldn’t Want 100% of GDP in Euros

What is really odd in the econoblogger debate over the SNB’s recent decision to drop the Swiss franc/euro peg is that some people (including prominent monetary economists) are acting like there is not even a possible danger here. Bill Woolsey actually asked me in the comments here at Free Advice: “Is the argument here that […]

Swiss National Bank vs. the Federal Reserve

In light of the recent announcement of the Swiss National Bank abandoning its peg to the euro, I thought people should realize just how much the SNB had inflated. The following chart compares the SNB “monetary base” (you can think of it as its balance sheet, close enough) with that of the Fed. They are […]

Fun Facts About Mortgages

==> Currently the Fed holds about $1.7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. The ostensible purpose of this massive bond-buying was to prop up the mortgage market, which props up the real estate market, which ultimately provides relief to struggling homeowners who are underwater. ==> The total outstanding mortgage debt on one- to four-family residences is $9.9 […]

The Interest Rate Fed Pays for Required versus Excess Reserves

I have known since it happened (in fall of 2008) that the Fed began paying interest on excess reserves held by the commercial banks. However, I haven’t seen much discussion about the discrepancy between the rate paid on required versus excess reserves: This San Fran Fed paper gives the basics on the topic, but does […]

Money Doesn’t Really “Go Into” Other Financial Assets

This is one of those posts where I’m really nit-picky about commentary that typically comes from people on “my side.” Not trying to tear people down, just trying to raise the bar on precision of language. An excerpt: [A] booming stock market doesn’t actually mean that there is an accumulation ofactual money in Manhattan. For one […]