Wednesday, September 19, 2012

It's Time to Air Out Ben Bernanke's Dirty Laundry

Now that the Fed has engaged in QE 3 (which is essentially QE infinite since it’s meant to run until things get where the Fed wants them), I decided to go back and count the recap the Fed/Feds’ interventions since the Great Crisis began in 2007.

Here’s a recap of some of the larger moves made during the Crisis:

  • Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
  • The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
  • Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
  • Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
  • The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
  • The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
  • The Feds kick off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
  • The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
  • The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
  • The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
  • $40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
  • The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
  • Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
  • QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
  • QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
  • QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
  • Operation Twist 2 (Nov ’11)
  • QE 3 buys $40 billion in Mortgage Backed Securities every month from now on (Sept. ’12)
That’s one heck of a list. And the worst part is I know I’ve left something out somewhere. Read more.....

5 comments:

  1. Socialism leaning towards Communism. Anything else we can do to elect Obama to a second term? Please do not renege in the upcoming election. Fuco Bama.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Obama is the stain in those shorts, but smells worse.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This election comes down to who is going to steer the ship into the abyss. Elect commie Obama if you want race full speed into hell, or Romney if you want to steer around some obstacles and smell some flowers along the way.

    Even Dr. Paul would not save the economy from the damage unleashed by the Orcs. We are headed for a reset.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reset indeed. It'll happen when least expected.

      Delete
  4. The collapse will happen regardless of who's president, even if it's Ron Paul! Hate to disappoint you, but Ron Paul will not win this election. If you think your libertarian views are safer under Obama's administration than Romney's, you are in for a rude awakening.

    ReplyDelete

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