What Would Happen if the Fed Caves to 4%-5% Core PCE Inflation, Gives up on 2%, as some Folks are Clamoring For? by Wolf Richter • Apr 16, 2023 • 349 Comments The economy would muddle through, but in the markets, all heck would break loose. Here’s why.
Fed’s Balance Sheet Plunges by $101 Billion in Two Weeks, as QT Continues and Bank Liquidity Support Begins to Unwind by Wolf Richter • Apr 6, 2023 • 114 Comments The dream of a return to QE was fun while it lasted.
Status of US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency and Exchange Rates: Slow Long-Term Decline on Track by Wolf Richter • Apr 2, 2023 • 188 Comments But the Chinese Renminbi didn’t make any progress at all last year.
Free Money Turned Brains to Mush, Now Some Banks Fail by Wolf Richter • Mar 25, 2023 • 177 Comments The Fed’s rate hikes and QT didn’t break anything except consensual hallucination.
The Fed Should Be Fired as Bank Regulator. Powell’s Discussion of Silicon Valley Bank & Regulatory Failure Shows Why by Wolf Richter • Mar 24, 2023 • 191 Comments The Fed is structurally too conflicted to regulate banks. The FDIC is not, but it needs tiger teeth to bite CEOs’ heads off.
Update on the Fed’s Liquidity Support for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 23, 2023 • 127 Comments Was it the Swiss National Bank that Borrowed $60 Billion via “Foreign Official” Repos for the Credit Suisse takeunder?
Powell Explains the Fed’s New Regime: Rate Hikes & QT to Fight Inflation while Offering Liquidity to Banks to Keep them from Toppling by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 244 Comments An enormously important new regime gets engraved into central-bank handbooks. The ECB and Bank of England are also on board.
Fed Hikes by 25 Basis Points, to 5.0% at Top of Range, Pencils in One More Rate Hike, No Rate Cut in 2023, QT Continues: New Regime of Tightening while Providing Liquidity for Banks by Wolf Richter • Mar 22, 2023 • 267 Comments Stepping on the brake with one foot while putting an arm around the baby to keep her from hitting the dashboard.
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: Free Money Turned Brains to Mush. Now Some Banks Fail by Wolf Richter • Mar 19, 2023 • 208 Comments The Fed ended Free Money, and the only thing it broke is the consensual hallucination that spawned during the Free Money era. And look what we got.
Fed Loaned $160 Billion to Banks and $142 billion to FDIC. But QT-Related Roll-off Continued by Wolf Richter • Mar 16, 2023 • 281 Comments At around 4.75%, plus collateral, these are expensive loans for banks.
