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Is The Fed Enabling Foreign Central Banks To Swap Out Their Agency Debt Into Treasuries?

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Another quite intriguing piece by Chris Martenson "The Shell Game - How The Federal Reserve Is Monetizing Debt" reveals some of the intricacies of the Fed's monetization game and, by digging deeper into the Fed's Custody Account, demonstrates not just how the Federal Reserve is enabling foreigners to swap out of Agencies into Treasuries, but how it is implicitly monetizing a markedly larger portion of debt than is assumed.

For the full details of the article we eagerly refer readers to the original Martenson piece, but in a nutshell here are the components of what Martenson coins "The Fed's Shell Game":

It is no secret that capital flows into the US have declined precipitously, a fact that can be substantiated by TIC flows and by the St. Louis Fed:

Comparing this data with TIC releases, indicates that from January to May the total capital outflows from the U.S. amount to ($314) billion in assets, consisting of central bank purchases of $50 billion, however, matched with private investor dispositions of $364 billion.

Ignoring the implications of what this decline would mean for an economy that relies exclusively on credit growth in order to perpetuate the monetary Ponzi scheme that the US economy has been for years, the simple conclusion here is that a combination of declining consumer credit and foreign interest for US debt purchases has very negative implications for the credit bubble the Federal Reserve is trying to reflate. As for the consequences for the U.S. Dollar as a result of this activity, these have recently become all too clear.

All well and good up to here.

However, what is very troubling is what Martenson points out is the cumulative change in the Fed's Custody Account, which at last check was roughly $2.8 trillion, and represented by Martenson's chart below:

Martenson provides a good explanation of what the function of the Custody Account is:

The Federal Reserve actually holds the bonds (or rather an electronic entry representing the bonds) in a special account for these various central banks.  This is called the "Custody Account" and it holds US debt 'in custody' for various central banks. Think of it as a magnificently vast brokerage/checking account, run by the Federal Reserve for central banks, and you'll have the right image.

Indeed, while TIC may indicate one thing, an observation of the CA indicates that foreigned have in fact been accumulating substantial amounts of US debt since the crisis began in earnest, at a rate that has not budged from its long-term average.

Yet the concerning conclusion by observing the above chart is the dramatic divergence in the CA of Treasury versus Agency holdings. Says Martenson:

Here we note that agency bonds peaked in October of 2008 at nearly a trillion dollars but have declined by $178 billion since then.  Treasuries, on the other hand, have increased by over $500 billion over that same span of time.  A half a trillion dollars!  If you were wondering how the US bond auctions have managed to go so smoothly, here's part of your answer.

At this point it bears pointing out the Fed's balance sheet, where the Fed's large appetite for agencies (including MBS for the purposes of this analysis) is evident. I present the most recent Federal Balance sheet as presented on Zero Hedge a week ago:

May this be an explanation of what is happening:

It would appear that foreign central banks have been swapping agency bonds for Treasury bonds, but that's not how the markets work.  First, they would have to sell those bonds, before they could use the proceeds to buy government debt. So to whom did they sell those Agency bonds in order to afford the Treasury bonds?

And here is where the concept of the appropriately coined Shell Game comes into play:

These are the three critical points to remember as you read further:

  1. The US government has record amounts of Treasuries to sell.
  2. Foreign central banks, which have a big pile of agency bonds in their custody account, would like to help but want to keep things somewhat under the radar to avoid scaring the debt markets.
  3. The Federal Reserve does not want to be seen directly buying US government debt at auctions (and in fact is not permitted to, but many rules have been 'bent' worse during this crisis), because that could upset the whole illusion that there is unlimited demand for US government paper, but it also desperately wants to avoid a failed auction.

For various reasons, the Federal Reserve cannot just up and start buying all the Treasury paper that becomes available in record amounts, week after week, month after month.

Instead, it uses this three-step shell game to hide what it is doing under a layer of complexity:

Shell #1:  Foreign central banks sell agency debt out of the custody account.

Shell #2:  The Federal Reserve buys those agency bonds with money created out of thin air.

Shell #3:  Foreign central banks use that very same money to buy Treasuries at the next government auction.

The question arises, where are the agencies that the Fed is purchasing at such as gluttonous pace coming from? Absent an audit of the Fed, one can merely speculate, but likely is one of the primary motivations for the Federal Reserve Chairman and the Secretary of the Treasury to claim that any additional openness into the activities of the Fed would be "problematic to the country."

Would this "behind the scenes" rotation endorsed by the Fed, whereby the Custody Account is the middleman for Foreign-Fed transactions, be the primary reason for an apparently unwavering indirect interest in US Treasuries?

As Martenson concludes:

The Federal Reserve has effectively been monetizing far more US government debt than has openly been revealed, by cleverly enabling foreign central banks to swap their agency debt for Treasury debt.  This is not a sign of strength and reveals a pattern of trading temporary relief for future difficulties.

This is very nearly the same path that Zimbabwe took, resulting in the complete abandonment of the Zimbabwe dollar as a unit of currency.  The difference is in the complexity of the game being played, not the substance of the actions themselves.

The shell game that the Fed is currently playing does not change the basic equation: Money is being printed out of thin air so that it can be used to buy US government debt.

When the full scope of this program is more widely recognized, ever more pressure will fall upon the dollar, as more and more private investors shun the dollar and all dollar-denominated instruments as stores of value and wealth. This will further burden the efforts of the various central banks around the world as they endeavor to meet the vast borrowing desires of the US government.

One possible result of the abandonment of these efforts is a wholesale flight out of the dollar and into other assets.  To US residents, this will be experienced as rapidly rising import costs and increasing costs for all internationally-traded basic commodities, especially food items.  For the rest of the world, the results will range from discomforting to disastrous, depending on their degree of dollar linkage.

As more and more people dig behind the Fed lustrous facade, increasingly more troubling discoveries are made. On one hand you see POMO auctions that repurchase recently auctioned off securities; on the other - potential capital rotation via custodial accounts of which there is no mention in mainstream media venues. If this analysis is in fact correct, the Fed is monetizing not only the Treasuries it purchases via POMO, but effectively also the indirect bidders' treasury interest, which is represented by their rolling out of agencies purchased by the Fed, and the newly raised cash used for UST purchases. Has the Fed essentially monopolized the entire Treasury Auction process?

Whether this speculation of dollar abusive policies by the Federal Reserve, which will stop at nothing, to reinflate the credit bubble and debase dollar-based debt, is in fact true, is questionable. However, definitive answers from Chariman Ben will not be forthcoming until he is forced to show his hand, whether via a legal order such as the recently won Bloomberg lawsuit, or through political means, such as HR 1207 and S 604. In the meantime, it appears the Federal Reserve, whose accountability should be to the entire US population, not just to a select crowd of Wall Street oligarchs, continues to pursue activities that facilitiate at any and all cost the stratification of US society into that minority that will benefit vastly from the Fed's ongoing actions and the significant majority who will see the purchasing power of the paper in their wallets gradually disappear, and effectively put the entire concept of the "American Middle Class" at risk.

For the full link to Chris Martenson's article, please click here.

 

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Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:56 | 49342 Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

It will - soon.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:04 | 49352 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

Because gold is hard to find. What did Heraclitus say about it. Men dig tons of earth to find ounces of gold.

It's pretty durable stuff. Almost impossible to get rid of. It can sit on the bottom of the ocean for 10,000 years and come up pure gold.

The above ground gold supplies dwarf the mining activiity so the banks simply pass the above ground supplies back and forth at set prices and it dictates the price of mining activity. So it's price is simply engineered until a massive revolt occurs over the engineering through massive hording of it.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:19 | 49371 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

You can't clone gold, or create it with a keystroke ad infinitum. Makes it much harder to cheat if you're a central banker..

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:52 | 49415 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Fekete considers gold to be the ultimate extinguisher of debt.  I believe Fekete would say that it was guaranteed that gold would ultimately "go into hiding" in hoards when gold standards were abandoned / gold clauses made inoperative.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:07 | 49357 Project Mayhem
Project Mayhem's picture

I think when the gold market truely reacts it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event and will happen very quickly.   I'm not sure when this will occur, but I suspect within months.  A big clue will be if gold goes into backwardation (spot price above near futures).

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:19 | 49622 texpat
texpat's picture

Interesting, the good prof's two most recent papers cover exactly this subject.

http://www.professorfekete.com/articles.asp

I read these are saying we are there already, or at least on the cusp.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:47 | 49863 Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

Yup.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:48 | 49864 Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

Yup. Also, Gold EXPLODING past $1000 will shut up a lot of people.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:34 | 49391 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

are you just teasing us murray?

gold is massively manipulated....read gata's
papers on how the money center banks like
jpm, ms, gs, db have highly concentrated shorts
for no reason than to carry out larry summer's
thesis published in the 1980s on the necessity
of suppressing the gold price to maintain
the attractiveness of government paper.....

while we are auditing the fed we need to audit
fort knox....bet there ain't too much gold there...

but in other ways gold has been reacting over the
past 9 years but the good stuff is yet to come....

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:00 | 49553 MurryRothbard
MurryRothbard's picture

I'm a simple minded and deeply flawed person who would ask for a

compelling explanation as to the motivation for gold manipulation. I'm all ears.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:51 | 49598 agrotera
agrotera's picture

The price of gold usually indicates how much fear is in the air about capital markets and asset values, so to speak. By keeping the price of gold down, it makes the green shoots look more believable.

 

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 03:00 | 49700 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

It's a competing currency. If you leave it alone it will keep the fiat currencies honest and is too tempting to use as a settlement between international debts. Manipulated it allowed the dollar to become a completely corrupted reserve currency.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:51 | 49865 Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

Read the paper by Larry Summers - "Gibson's Paradox and the Gold Standard". Here is the link:

 

http://www.gata.org/files/gibson.pdf

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:00 | 49427 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Murray,

All you need to do is continue to relentlessly take delivery.  Personally, I believe there is a crash coming to shake commods and precious metals loose from weak hands (it won't matter to me) and maybe give JPM et al a chance to cover those shorts.  Take delivery and hang on tight.  Just my opinion.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:27 | 49458 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

taking physical posession of gold is the sin
qua non for price appreciation.....

dumb bunnies are invested in etfs, comex, and
other crooked schemes where the same bar of gold
is sold multiple times to different buyers...

fekete reports falling gold stocks at comex
warehouses which supports the backwardation
thesis....

once gold buyers start to take gold posession
there will be a vigorous rise in gold prices
and comex gold market may well implode...and
it's gone!

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:35 | 49524 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

we have all seen the pictures of the pretty gold bars sitting somewhere in some vault with the owners of the ETF's standing around in there. Who knows how much gold the ETF's have? who knows?

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 00:39 | 49661 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

what will happen to gold stocks? companies?

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:08 | 49431 TumblingDice
TumblingDice's picture

Gold is a great hedge, something that you can't go wrong with. However consider copper as another possible play in the same spirit which may end up higher yielding. It has more intrinsic value.

All physical of course.... A futures contract is just another piece of paper or electronic record after all.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:55 | 49341 agrotera
agrotera's picture

Thought this was going on, and thought this wasn't legal. 

Even the Exec Order 12631 requires actions taken to be "legal"...

Source: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12...

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:57 | 49344 agrotera
agrotera's picture

So, who wants to bet when the FBI does a coordinated raid on all of their locations?

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:58 | 49422 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

That will only happen IF the FBI ever asks the right questions to begin with...

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:19 | 49373 yy
yy's picture

There is little surprising in the hypothesis, in fact Brad Setser on http://blogs.cfr.org/setser/   had numerous times identified the Agency to Treasury conversion China is likely engaged in over the last year. The post above tells us that this requires some FED participation, which while logical is difficult to trace since plenty of helpers such GS will be more than happy to facilitate....

 

The real question is to determine (1) when the operation will hit the wall  (2) how the FOREX adjustment will take place.  It is easy to say the USD will crash and prices of imports will increase, but in reality this cannot take place in the same way Zimbabwe or an emerging economy get hit. It will be entirely new and very volatile, the material of Black Swans.

 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:20 | 49451 Hephasteus
Hephasteus's picture

Forex and monex won't ADJUST. They will simply close. Go AWAY. Disappear.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:29 | 49384 michigan independant
michigan independant's picture

What was Keynes after? The fusion of private ownership and socialism. It is not the ownership of the instruments of production which it is important for the State to assume. If the State is able to determine the aggregate amount of resources devoted to augmenting the instruments and the basic rate of reward to those who own them, it will have accomplished all that is necessary. Moreover, the necessary measures of socialisation can be introduced gradually and without a break in the general traditions of society (p. 378).

 

 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 19:54 | 49421 Rollerball
Rollerball's picture

EXACTLY!   

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:00 | 49426 TumblingDice
TumblingDice's picture

If only 5% of the population read and understood the content of this page...

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:04 | 49432 Ich bin ein whatever
Ich bin ein whatever's picture

Why do I feel like I just walked into a viewing of "The Sting", but instead of the movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, I get Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, and Goldman Sachs playing a shell game with my money?

Jeez.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:06 | 49433 Icarus
Icarus's picture

I think there are many commenters over reacting to this.

The Fed bought $500B of MBS and it looks like half of it came out of the Fed custody accounts. By publishing that there would be a bid for MBS, the derisk move to Treasuries has been orderly without the MBS market crashing.

Everyone is continually being amazed by the Fed balance sheet - this is fractional banking. The currency hasn't completely collapsed, the monetary base is shrinking, consumer debt is shrinking, Treasury and Fed auctions continually go well, no government agency has any money, 17% U6 - it sounds like deflation.

The banks are busy building reserves for Jan 2010 to bring on off-balance sheet items.  Not to mention the absolute horrors that must be occuring at the discount window all in the name of keeping up appearances.

My money is still on deflation (possibly with devaluation - with an economy as big as the US its hard to know for sure).

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:39 | 49472 yy
yy's picture

I am with you on over-reaction, and the danger for investors of over-estimating the currency risk is serious, as we experienced late 2008. A rerun can easily play out one more time.

Deflation and devaluation do not make a natural fit. Deflation increases the value of cash (as in liquidity) to pay debts, which in turn reduces outstanding credit (which means existing debt becomes more valuable to creditors).  The only "variable" is Gold, but it is such an irrational thing, that in a way it does not matter much how people value gold (that's my take on the goldbugs out there).

A successful path is a managed deflation (like Japan), that will allow time for healing in balance sheets all around (and this is what Bonds seem to be pricing), anything short of that and we will get into local instabilities which will converge to the same outcome of managed deflation.

 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:49 | 49485 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

This thing of calling gold's value "irrational" is...irrational.  It's a characterization that is learned in B school I think, because I see this very word used often.

It makes absolutely no sense at all to be paid small sums of money for a day's labor when vast quantities of that very same "money" can be, and are being effortlessly clicked into existence every day at the whim of one man.  THAT'S irrational, and valuing the "money" that is produced / produceable in that manner is similarly irrational.

 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:52 | 49486 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

And while I'm at it, buying Treasury securities denominated in a currency that vast quantities of which are in fact being clicked effortlessly into existence must then be the absolute height of irrationality.  "I hereby promise to pay you with the output of my computer mouse". 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:08 | 49498 yy
yy's picture

Take it easy, I am not for paper money either, I think tangibles such as energy (Oil/Gas), agriculture-commodities and even real-estate are more durable and valuable than Gold, especially in uncertain valuations.  Golds' advantage is being compact, easy to store/hide and non-perishable... but the disadvantage is that 7 billion people can live quite well without it, and if it never existed nobody would have cared...

Debt in terms of bonds will survive as long as society remains operational, absent a breakdown (such as Zimbabwe), a system for credit/debt will exist and the only question is the pricing of risk. I am for one, not willing to buy Treasury's at current returns, but iI am watching government's actions very carefully.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:39 | 49526 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

i can'e believe the uninformed opinions calling
for energy, food, and real estate to as money....
talk about barbaric relics...artifacts from
millenia ago....

gold meets the criteria for money in ways in
which
those mentioned assets could never hope to do...
one item
you might want to consider is marginal utility...
and those characteristics which you did mention
are so important as to damn the value of the
ephmera and boat anchors you propose...

you lack even a basic understanding of monetary
science....

it is a preposterous utterance of
flibbertygibbetyness to say that gold's
non-appearance would never be missed....gold
has served to build and create a fabulous civilization
without which today's economy and standards
of living would be impossible....

7 billion people cannot live without gold - it
is as much a currency as ever amd as important
whether you can see it or not... reviled yes
because the totalitarian mind resents gold but
still currency nonetheless without which civilization
collapses...it's value does not depend upon who
physically posesses it....

i know that i would have much more success
walking into a car dealership to buy a car with
gold than
i would if i went in with a truck load of cheetos
and gallon of gasoline....

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:45 | 49538 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

and while i am at it, you are confusing the
values of these secondary goods with value as
money....without being able to express any
good or service in terms of gold all values
vanish only to restructure along some primitive
barbaric model....

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 03:42 | 49706 agrotera
agrotera's picture

I totally agree with you SWRichmond!!!

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:23 | 49513 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

i was going to let the gibberish on gold pass but
the idea that japan has managed deflation for
healing its balance sheets is a farce of
fantastical proportions....

japan has been in economic stagnation and
depression for 20 years....i don't see any green shoots
over there any more than i do here...

bernanke seems quite determined to avoid managed
deflation....that's just a policy statement -
not a prediction of success...

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:30 | 49523 Icarus
Icarus's picture

After decades of time to analyse the only critism of Japan is that they should have forced default on more debt. Now that MBS debt is gov backed they have painted themselves into a corner. That is what's sad about TD's post.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:17 | 49447 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

So FCBs are happy to buy safer(?) treasuries than MBS. If dollar collapses who is on the hook? FCBs are going to be on the race to the bottom too.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:28 | 49519 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

First, I hope Ron Paul got cc'd on this.

Second, I suspect that what will bring on the massive inflation is if, or when the economy actually recovers. If one nets out the money creation evident in this article with the increase in reserves held by member banks at the Fed, the actual inflationary pressure is mitigated. So long as there is no recovery, those reserves will probably stay on deposit at the Fed, and like the Japan case, the newly created money is not even sufficient to fill in the holes resulting from the collapse of asset prices.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:52 | 49544 Sqworl
Sqworl's picture

Arrested this morning the only possible suspect for the Identity theft of Ben Bernanke quoted at the time of his arrest. Mr. Potato head said, "if I have only worn my derby and glasses they would have never found me."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/213696

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:54 | 49546 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

In a roundabout way, the Chinese seem to be making some sort of statement that is either dollar supportive or evidences a belief in continued deflation. Or maybe it's just a statement about liquidity. Why? Go read the Real Estate post. In that post (NY Trophy Buildings...) some comments note that S-FL auctions have yielded condo buys as low as 2 cents on the dollar. The Chinese could easily have sold their Agencies and bought South Florida RE. Instead, the opted for Treasury paper.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:04 | 49556 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Someday the stiffs that are still keeping their real hard earned money in the busted banks will find that it isn't worth the risk, and then pull out. I am there.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:45 | 49591 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

"The Fed and U.S. banks would suffer irreparable harm if details of the loan programs were made public, according to the central bank’s senior counsel, Yvonne Mizusawa."
-Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atY_Xj_ihGM4

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:54 | 49601 rapier
rapier's picture

This isn't news and it isn't a secret. It may be to most people.

Lee Adler's Wall Street Examiner's Fed Report contains this stuff and tons more.

 

"FCBs’ holdings of GSE paper have dropped from a high of $985 billion in July 2008 to $785 billion now. The quarterly (not annual) growth rate in FCB holdings of GSE paper is now minus 3.6% after being slightly positive for a couple of weeks in mid-May, but this is above the low of -4.3% hit the week of August 12

Any reduction of FCB holdings of GSE paper offsets any systemic gain resulting
from the Fed’s direct purchases of that paper.

This does not bode well for longer term Treasury yields. While the FCBs have been liquidating their GSE holdings they were buying Treasuries heavily...."

 

These systematic flows  can be surprising to see but analyzing their real impact is a guessing game. The Fed has committed to purchasing $200 billion of GSE paper. They have done about 120 of that so far. It pretty much goes without saying that whoever gets that cash is going to buy Treasuries with it.  This is all important but it isn't a secret.

http://wallstreetexaminer.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:15 | 49618 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

While the average american employee toil to earn his salary in dollars to feed his family, these folks at the Fed (incl the Feds of NY etc) and this person named bernanke who calls himself a professor is committing crime against us all by debasing our currency in the name of reviving the economy by creating inflation. When elites rob from the poor to feed the rich it is always recipe for a revolution - when is for americans to decide. If the people does not act, then we have ourselves to blame for the end of this nation and we will have to answer to future generations.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 14:11 | 49636 darkness (not verified)
darkness's picture

Half the stores had stuff marked in old prices and half in new prices. Everybody was living like there was no tomorrow...which made for some great unexpected intimate liaisons.

good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www..
hat tip: finance news & finance opinions

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:58 | 49646 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Sorry I don't understand this whole ordeal.

Its in the best interest for the big stakeholders of the world (central banks stockholders) to hold USTs..right? If the agency bonds default, who gets the bill? The taxpayer.

So, isn't the US treasury essentially selling the United States by issuing more and more of USTs? In essence, if the US defaults, then those holding UST would have access to anything in the US.

That's the other reason I believe its in their best interest to have deflation. Wouldn't credit default create deflation? can't the fed control inflation through interest rates?\

Why not have a deflationary environment for the prize winners (those holding USTs) so they can buy things up for penneys on the dollars?

Just learning...so go easy on me. Thanks.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 09:38 | 49791 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

"Wouldn't credit default create deflation?"

IMO deflation creates credit default, leading to currency crisis = hyperinflation.  Note that hyperinflation is not merely "high inflation" but a collapse of confidence in a currency, with subsequent loss of buying power.  High inflation is what Bernanke actually wants.

"Why not have a deflationary environment for the prize winners (those holding USTs) so they can buy things up for penneys on the dollars?"

Maybe.  This statement assumes that the losers will honor their losses and not stiff the lenders via their home-court judicial system and large military.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 00:10 | 49650 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

pretty soon, you'll see a huge line of sheople standing near closed doors of the banks

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 00:35 | 49659 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Bernanke, Geithner, Rubens, Summers, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan & the Federal Reserve Bank know exactly what they are doing by collapsing the US Dollar:

“The purpose of this financial crisis is to take down the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance and, in the midst of the resulting confusion, put in its place a Global Monetary Authority [GMA - run directly by international bankers freed of any government control] -a planetary financial control organization" - Bruce Wiseman

Hidden from news last week:

Americas 6th largest financial collapse: Colonial Bank!

The FDIC is run by Sheila Bair, a Lawyer, and the dean at the Isenberg Institute. Her and her staff of Zio-clowns are not about to arrest the directors, the executive management, the auditors, or the investment oversight board.

This clueless clown belongs behind the counter of a McDonalds. He is cooking the 'Health Scheme' where doctors, hospitals, and Hispanic immigrants get a $ trillion dollars.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 00:41 | 49662 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Bernanke, Geithner, Rubens, Summers, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan & the Federal Reserve Bank know exactly what they are doing by collapsing the US Dollar:

“The purpose of this financial crisis is to take down the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance and, in the midst of the resulting confusion, put in its place a Global Monetary Authority [GMA - run directly by international bankers freed of any government control] -a planetary financial control organization" - Bruce Wiseman

Hidden from news last week:

Americas 6th largest financial collapse: Colonial Bank!

The FDIC is run by Sheila Bair, a Lawyer, and the dean at the Isenberg Institute. Her and her staff of Zio-clowns are not about to arrest the directors, the executive management, the auditors, or the investment oversight board.

This clueless clown belongs behind the counter of a McDonalds. He is cooking the 'Health Scheme' where doctors, hospitals, and Hispanic immigrants get a $ trillion dollars.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 01:54 | 49683 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

My wife made a shrewd observation the other day, said that "health care" was red herring to distract everyone, to cover up a much bigger problem. This is it.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 02:55 | 49699 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Couple of points have been overlooked in the discussion:

1. What price was paid by the Fed for the agencies? Mark to market? Maybe not. Or maybe the purchases were carried out to prevent a price crash but that would be a dangerous game of chicken between the Fed and the other central banks.

2. Where'd the agencies come from? Can't see that CBs would ordinarily be sitting on masses of other than pure government paper. Looks like the CBs have been gathering up US agencies from their own citizens.

So, could be a nice cooperative game of cleansing US agencies internationally in exchange for freshly minted US$. The clients of the foreign CBs get to avoid taking a bath and a nasty price crash in agencies is avoided. Foreign CBs reflate their economy by buying Iocally owned agencies with their own money (QE) but maintain their balance sheet with US Treasuries. The US Treasury gets to sell its paper. The Fed accumulates garbage but it has paid for them by creating more but better quality (for the moment) garbage.

Win-win-win-win. So it's being done. Works too, so long as "confidence is maintained".

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 09:45 | 49795 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

"Looks like the CBs have been gathering up US agencies from their own citizens."

Or at least from their own major indigenous banksters.  "You sold us this crap, now take it back!"  We swap the MBS that OUR banksters sold to THEIR banksters, replace with Treasuries, putting our taxpayers on the hook for our banksters' malfeasance, and no one can see it.  Interesting.  This actually makes a case for the Fed WANTING the deficit to increase, to give them more room to buy (repatriate) more bad debt.

 

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 03:25 | 49704 GoldmanSux
GoldmanSux's picture

Late night attack by the gold bugs. Mostly anonymous postings. Spare me. An interesting thread gone bad.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 04:22 | 49710 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

how can bernanke under oath lie and claim he's not monetizing the debt?

how?

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 06:58 | 49728 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Interesting article...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAOhgVw78e3U

Don't think that the actual bank names will come out, rather there must be another information that the Fed wishes to keep from public eyes.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 07:28 | 49735 Terminal Frost
Terminal Frost's picture

What's the end game for Fannie and Freddie?  Does the Fed load up, bail out foreign CBs and then nuke (formally socialize) Fannie and Freddie?

To me, all of this implies that the intrinsic value of gold is WAY beyond market prices.

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 07:58 | 49745 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Thank you Tyler for the heads up.

Well, now things DO make sense. And the Fed's desire to be even more powerful (someone dim the lights please) makes logical sense. I was wondering who was printing money faster than the USA...silly me to think that ANYONE could out do US.

I am telling my kids " you have two career choices..learn Chinese and become a real estate broker or learn gardening so you can pick apples quicker than the illegals can".

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 11:35 | 49947 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

If you think hyperinflation is going to happen, why buy gold? Why not just buy LEAP Calls on SPX at the highest strike?

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 11:50 | 49985 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

After parsing this whole thing...I'm stunned. I almost barfed on the bus. FUCK,FUCK,FUCK,FUCK,FUCK...sorry.
This is so illegal and so detrimental to the recovery. And Ben thinks he control inflation in the future?

Thu, 08/27/2009 - 11:59 | 50008 Anonymous
Thu, 08/27/2009 - 15:50 | 50529 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

See the FED FOMC press release from 3/18/09.

The FED is delivering within 6 months on buying back agency and treasury paper from sovereigns.

... the (FOMC) Committee decided today to increase the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion this year, and to increase its purchases of agency debt this year by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.

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