You're now on the archive server. Commenting has been disabled.

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Update: Week Of August 5

Tyler Durden's picture




Total Federal Reserve balance sheet assets for the week of August 5 of $1,988 billion consisting of:

  • Securities held outright: $1,354 billion
    (a monthly increase of $125 billion MoM, resulting from $35.9 billion in new
    Treasury purchases
    and $80.4 billion increase in Fed Agency Debt)
  • Net borrowings: $282 billion (a decline of $57 billion month over month)
  • Float, liquidity swaps, Maiden Lane and other assets: $282 billion
    (a recent record decrease of $76 billion month over month due to a continued reduction in Central Bank
    Liquidity Swaps
    ($49 billion) and ($32) billion in CPFF outstandings).
  • Foreign
    central bank liquidity swaps are again at the lowest level since the Lehman bankruptcy ($77 billion) - the level in 2008 pre-Lehman was $62 billion. The Fed is aggressively recalling any and all liquidity swaps.

Foreign holdings
of USTs and Agencies increased by $23.5 billion monthly to
$2,810 billion from $2,787 billion in the prior month. This is now about 20% less than the comparable increase in Securities Held Outright by the
Federal Reserve, implying foreign purchasers are starting to fall far behind in their purchases of US securities relative to the Fed's monetization rate.

The Federal Reserve's Monetary Base number of $1,663 billion was unchanged from the prior week.




Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:00 | Link to Comment Mos
Mos's picture

"almost $160 billion in agencies purchased in the last two weeks"

Is it safe to say the government is propping up the housing market?  Wonder where house prices would be if Fannie and Freddie were allowed to fail?

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:03 | Link to Comment Jonathan Daws
Jonathan Daws's picture

QE is a pretty name for skipping the banks to expand the money supply.  With all the borrowing need by Obamaco and wanting to prop up housing, the Fed will never sell any of that paper back.

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:06 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:08 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:09 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:11 | Link to Comment ShankyS
ShankyS's picture

Does the green in the chart represent green shoots? 

 

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:12 | Link to Comment whopper
whopper's picture

That is quite a mountain of.......confidence. Sure hope people don't lose the confidence  cause that mountain of confidence could turn into a mountain of toxic you know what.

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:17 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:28 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

how about posting yours first?

Thank you.

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:03 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:18 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:31 | Link to Comment Brick
Brick's picture

The details given here are misleading, but the sentiment is probably right.  The Federal reserve balance sheet is not expanding as a total at the moment and we should remember that foreign holdings are only part of the story with local institutions also having holdings.

 

In terms of Agency debt then only the FED is funding this at the moment. I don’t see that changing even if mortgage rates go up 3 percent which means the FED will need to keep the purchases up. There is no exit plan other than hoping somebody will eventually start buying agency debt.

 

There is a risk that QE is used to support fiscal deficit and accrued interest such that it can never be fully withdrawn without serious economic damage. In which case once foreign central banks get a hint of this they will withdraw even more.

 

In terms of treasury debt then I think all the demand is at the short end and perhaps what we should notice is that where 2 year securities were desirable recently they are less so now. Will there come a time when all the treasury can sell is monthly debt ?

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:34 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:51 | Link to Comment Project Mayhem
Project Mayhem's picture

If you think this blog is partisan, there is nothing that can help you, your mind is shattered.

Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:54 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:34 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:41 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:15 | Link to Comment lizzy36
lizzy36's picture

Not to defend Tyler because i trust he is a big boy and can do that all on his own but the graph, as presented above, is consistent with the manner of previous presentations on this issue. 

But if you have a different version or interpretation of the material presented herein, why don't you submit it ZH?

 

Sat, 08/08/2009 - 01:34 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:52 | Link to Comment Alexander Supertramp
Alexander Supertramp's picture

"It is an undeniable fact that, ever since the Fed was visited upon us in 1914, our inflations have been more intense, and our depressions far deeper, than ever before." - Murray Rothbard

Don't just audit it, shoot it.

Sat, 10/30/2010 - 03:55 | Link to Comment Susancai
Susancai's picture

From the chart, we can see that it's rising. prepaid cell phones

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!