Federal Reserve

Score another one for the little guys.

A one hour program in which Ron Paul provides the basics of the Federal Reserve and why it is high time transparency was introduced to this most critical of institutions. Must watch.

Last week's $300 million decline in Foreign Holdings was promptly reversed and this week saw an increase of $7.2 billion. Yet, like last week, the comparison between domestic and foreign weekly securities purchases is trivial: $7 billion versus $86 billion: the US is promptly becoming its own largest debtor... by a factor more than 10x.

Foreign holdings of US Securities decreased for the first time in 5 months by $299 million sequentially (weekly) to $2,809.9 billion from $2,810.2 billion in the prior month. Keep in mind in the same time period the Fed purchased over $16.6 billion of Treasuries, indicating that in the last week the Fed was the only purchaser of Treasuries. In a normal environment this would be a very troubling development.

"When people kid around that the Fed has become another hedge fund now that it is the lender of first, second and last resort — to mention the market-maker for everyone including RVs and mobile homes — it really is no joke at all. See NY Fed in Hiring Spree as Assets Soar. The New York Fed is seeking to bolster its staffing of traders — not research staff, but traders — by nearly 70%!! When will the Fed start hiring investment bankers? That is what we would like to know."

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 less than 20% of 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.

Zero Hedge recently submitted a FOIA to the Federal Reserve regarding information prepared by Davis Polk and Morgan Stanley in their capacity as legal and financial advisors to the Fed in its negotiations on whether or not to push AIG into bankruptcy. We present their response.

And speaking of the Fed's balance sheet (and not the public side but the $9 trillion in off-balance sheet voodoo), here is some good reading, especially with certain politicians hell bent to prevent HR1207 from occurring despite the 280 or so congressmen in support of the proposal (a very self-destructive apathy that Zero Hedge will speak more on in a few days).

The Fed's monetization of securities accelerates on declining Foreign purchases and an imperative to keep mortgage rates at artificially low levels

Tommy Mottola must be considering signing a record deal with the lately omnipresent Ron Paul.

Incidentally, from Ben Bernanke's ongoing presentation to the House committee, when asked "How does providing factual info on Fed discussions compromise the Fed", Bernanke had this highly illogical reponse:

1. It would inhibit discussion.

2. It would inhibit the provision of information.

3. It would implicity provide the sense that Congress was second-guessing or trying to overrule the FOMC's decisions.

Did Wall Street chip in for the prompter on this response? The absurdity of Bernanke's answer would likely provide Lewis Black with hours of stand up entertainment fodder.

A must watch introductory clip by the American News Project which summarizes well the current push to unmask the inner workings of the Federal Reserve, the urgency of increasing transparency and the groundbreaking nature of Ron Paul's HR 1207 bill.

Total Federal Reserve balance sheet assets for the week of June 24 of $2,048

Total Federal Reserve balance sheet assets for the week of June 17 of $2,053 billion consisting of:

Total Federal Reserve balance sheet assets for the week of June 17 of $2,053 billion consisting of:

Total Federal Reserve balance sheet assets for the week of June 17 of $2,053 billion consisting of: