More Than Meets the Eye: Some Fiscal Implications of Monetary Policy
In 2012, the Fed’s remittances to the U.S. Treasury amounted to $88.4 billion.
What If? A Counterfactual SOMA Portfolio
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has actively used changes in the size and composition of the System Open Market Account (SOMA) portfolio to implement monetary policy in recent years.
A History of SOMA Income
Historically, the Federal Reserve has held mostly interest-bearing securities on the asset side of its balance sheet and, up until 2008, mostly currency on its liability side, on which it pays no interest.
The SOMA Portfolio through Time
The System Open Market Account (SOMA) is a portfolio held by the Federal Reserve to support monetary policy implementation and reflects assets and liabilities (domestic, and some foreign) acquired through open market operations.
Federal Reserve Liquidity Facilities Gross $22 Billion for U.S. Taxpayers
During the 2007-09 crisis, the Federal Reserve took many measures to mitigate
disruptions in financial markets, including the introduction or expansion of
liquidity facilities.
Just Released: Chairman Bernanke Returns to His Academic Roots, Part 2
his week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke completed his four-lecture series for undergraduate students at the George Washington School of Business in Washington, D.C.
Did the Fed’s Term Auction Facility Work?
We argue that the Fed’s Term Auction Facility (TAF), introduced in December 2007, lowered the cost of borrowing of banks in the market during the recent financial crisis.
Will the Federal Reserve’s Asset Purchases Lead to Higher Inflation?
A common refrain among critics of the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchases (“LSAPs”) of Treasury securities is that the Fed is simply printing money to purchase the assets, and that this money growth will lead to much higher inflation. Are those charges accurate? In this post, I explain that the Fed’s asset purchases do not necessarily lead to higher money growth, and that the Fed’s ability (since 2008) to pay interest on banks’ reserves provides a critical new tool to constrain future money growth. With this innovation, an increase in bank reserves no longer mechanically triggers a series of responses that could lead to excessive money growth and higher inflation.