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JackRiddler wrote:Oh, leveling will come, but you just know Q3, Q4 and 09-Q1 are going to be the biggest spike up ever! A trillion just on the govt. deficit officially, plus 2 or 4 trillion in Fed bailout payouts, a lot of that in loans and debt/"asset" guarantees.
slow_dazzle wrote:We are living in a period of steep lines on graphs, none of them positive in any way. I don't have the link to hand to support what follows - wish I had. Apparently, MacDonald's is now the second largest processor of credit card transactions in the US. In plain English, that means the number of people paying for fast food via credit card has spiked upwards. Seems more and more people are paying for food by credit card. Poor devils.
I did find this nice little graph though:
JackRiddler wrote:
That one's very pretty. Can you explicate it for us? Thank you!
Here's the deal. Bank reserves are net borrowed. This comes at a time when commercial real estate is about to plunge and bank balance sheets are loaded to the gills with them.
This also comes at a time when social attitudes towards debt are going to impair Bernanke's ability to inflate. For more on social attitudes, please see 60 Minutes Legitimizes Walking Away, Changing Social Attitudes About Debt, and a Crash Course For Bernanke.
Finally, banks will not be going deeper to the "TAF well" as long as the rules state "All advances must be fully collateralized." Once collateral runs out, it's the end of the line.
If the Fed is not concerned about this situation, they soon will be.
Of course there are those who believe the Fed will break the rules and eliminate all collateral requirements. So far anyway, they have not done so. Let's assume however, when push comes to shove, the Fed acting under duress does just what Glassman says, and provides permanent capital for free.
The Checkmate Scenario
Stop and think what massive printing would do to the US dollar and long term interest rates. It's called Checkmate. And that is why the Fed would not do what Glassman suggests, even if they could. The market won't allow it!
slow_dazzle wrote:JackRiddler wrote:
That one's very pretty. Can you explicate it for us? Thank you!
Best and most succinct breakdown (imo) is on Mish Shedlock's blog:Here's the deal. Bank reserves are net borrowed. This comes at a time when commercial real estate is about to plunge and bank balance sheets are loaded to the gills with them.
This also comes at a time when social attitudes towards debt are going to impair Bernanke's ability to inflate. For more on social attitudes, please see 60 Minutes Legitimizes Walking Away, Changing Social Attitudes About Debt, and a Crash Course For Bernanke.
Finally, banks will not be going deeper to the "TAF well" as long as the rules state "All advances must be fully collateralized." Once collateral runs out, it's the end of the line.
If the Fed is not concerned about this situation, they soon will be.
Of course there are those who believe the Fed will break the rules and eliminate all collateral requirements. So far anyway, they have not done so. Let's assume however, when push comes to shove, the Fed acting under duress does just what Glassman says, and provides permanent capital for free.
The Checkmate Scenario
Stop and think what massive printing would do to the US dollar and long term interest rates. It's called Checkmate. And that is why the Fed would not do what Glassman suggests, even if they could. The market won't allow it!
Where is the money coming from if the Fed doesn't have any money apart from the stuff that comes off the printing press? (And what are those companies getting bail outs putting up as collateral?) AFAIK this is a recipe for Weimar style hyper-inflation but there are some people who think a massive deflation is the immediate problem as demand falls through the floor. Either way the fact that the Fed does not have actual capital is seriously worrying unless anyone with better economic knowledge than me can say otherwise.
BTW, remember the recent $700 billion "bail out"? Estimates vary but the consensus view is the amount of toxic investment out there is over $500 trillion. $700 billion won't even look at that amount of bad money.
What is happening right now is bad, is going to get steadily worse and is probably irreversible.
Hard times are here.
Best
s_d
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