On Tuesday, the FOMC announced it would use funds received from prepayments on its MBS holdings to purchase Treasury securities on the open market, effectively allowing it to return those funds into the financial system.
Read more here – Poor Data Lead to Fed Action; Quiet Week Ahead
Here are highlights from news reports on the Federal Reserve’s decision today to leave short-term interest rates unchanged: Reuters: “U.S. short-term interest rate futures rose on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve pledged, as expected, to keep interest rates near zero for an ‘extended’ period in a bid to support…
From the FOMC : Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests that economic activity is leveling out . Conditions in financial markets have improved further in recent weeks. Household spending has continued to show signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses,…
Consumer credit fell $10.3 billion in the U.S. in June, or at a 4.92 percent annual rate, to $2.5 trillion. It was the fifth straight month of decline, as banks cut limits on credit cards and some consumers remained wary of borrowing money for big purchases. Economics blog Calculated…
This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks. The list is compiled from regulator press releases or from public news sources (see Enforcement Action Type link for source). The FDIC data is released monthly with a delay – the most recent data is from June 30th. The Fed and OTC…
ProPublica has a great table of failed banks with sortable columns by state, date and Federal regulator. The database also includes links to public enforcement documents with the dates the documents were issued (Cease and Desist orders, Prompt Corrective Action directives, etc.). As an example, Millennium State Bank of Texas…
Brian sent me these comments from Multi-Color Corp. (this company makes labels mostly for consumer product companies: P&G was 19% of Q1 sales and Miller Beer was 13%.) Multi-Color: “While there is increasing evidence that the worst of the recession may be over, we remain cautious about sales volume for…
One thing that has puzzled me is that some of the countries that have — implicitly at least — been most critical of the expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet during the crisis long have had much larger balance sheets than the US Federal Reserve. Before the crisis, the…
The Federal Reserve is considering restrictions on how mortgage brokers are paid by banks. As I explained in my last post, the Fed wants broker pay tied to loan amount and not to the interest rate on the home loan. The hope is that will prevent brokers from leading…
The Federal Reserve is considering a restriction on how mortgage brokers are paid, National Mortgage News reported yesterday. The rule would not allow banks to pay brokers differently based upon the rate or term of a loan — pay would be tied solely to loan amount. Consumer advocates have…