80% of US debt purchased by the Fed in 2009?!

Discussion in 'Economics' started by DrPepper, Feb 7, 2010.


  1. I an not trying to offend you. I am just saying that you can't put the whole picture together from the internet.

    For example concerning the process employed for treasury debt auctions and how the sales are accounted for.

    Debt auctions by the Treasury are sold to primary dealers. Feds can give the primary dealers the money to buy the Treasuries if they have too etc. Its easy to maniplilate when the fed's books are closed to the outside. After seeing how they handled AIG why would any one trust them to do tell the truth about anything??

    I guess what it boils down to is that your telling me that cnbc is lying. That's cool. Hopefully the next time they talk about how great obama is then that will be met with the same degree of skepticism.
     
    #41     Feb 7, 2010
  2. This is more information on how the Fed has be doing business. Most people may have already seen this.



    "This video is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand just how "effective" the Fed is at safeguarding taxpayer money. Apparently nobody at the Federal Reserve has any clue where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balance sheet have gone. Additionally, nobody there seems to have any idea what the losses on the Fed's $2 trillion portfolio really are.

    As for the pittance of $9 trillion in Fed off-balance sheet transactions over the past 8 months, well, yeah, that's also somewhere out there... Just don't ask the Federal Reserve where.

    Rep. Alan Grayson summarizes it best: "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track of anything."


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    #42     Feb 7, 2010
  3. Hmmm, methinks you have it backwards... If you claim there's a conspiracy, pls feel free to provide factual evidence. Until you do or until an audit finds that the Fed has misled the public, you don't have a leg to stand on.

    As to your specific doubts, in my estimate, households bought arnd $370bn USTs last year. Pension funds/insurance co's bought arnd $100bn. The rest was taken by commercial banks/dealers. Pls feel free to explain what's wrong with these figures.

    As to your other commentary, you clearly have no idea how the treasury mkt works.
     
    #43     Feb 7, 2010
  4. All I can say is that I miss Brad Setser's blog (kind of related eh).
     
    #44     Feb 7, 2010
  5. The only point that I am trying to make here is simple. Making an unsubstantiated claim that the Fed is monetizing trillions of US govt debt in secret is akin to someone claiming Britney Spears is an extraterrestrial alien (which is, after all, entirely possible). Specifically, just because it's impossible for me to conclusively demonstrate that she is NOT an alien, doesn't make the claim true.

    At any rate, this was entertaining, but I fear it's a waste of my time to try to use facts to argue with politically-motivated fanatics. Just goes to show that, like I said before, politics is the root of all evil. Peace, y'all!
     
    #45     Feb 7, 2010
  6. Show us where you got those numbers. Better yet prove cnbc wrong.

    Primary dealers purchase the vast majority of treasury sales. I think you are in denial.
     
    #46     Feb 7, 2010
  7. Hey I totally agree with you.
    :0
    Preaching to the choir.

    I enjoyed Brad Setser's blog because his analysis of Chinese/dollar/etc trade and investment flows were most fascinating. Quite a rigorous economist as far as all things blogosphere are concerned. You might want to read pg 6 of this thread.
     
    #47     Feb 7, 2010
  8. As they should. Primary dealers (by definition) are a trading conduit to the real buyers of these securities. That has nothing to do with your conspiracy point.
     
    #48     Feb 7, 2010
  9. What happened to him? There's a couple of good ones still broadcasting, I think.
     
    #49     Feb 7, 2010
  10. http://blogs.cfr.org/setser/

    National economic council.
     
    #50     Feb 7, 2010