Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Trump Stocks and Crypto Mania 2025 Incoming as Bitcoin Breaks Above $100k - 8th Dec 24
Gold Price Multiple Confirmations - Are You Ready? - 8th Dec 24
Gold Price Monster Upleg Lives - 8th Dec 24
Stock & Crypto Markets Going into December 2024 - 2nd Dec 24
US Presidential Election Year Stock Market Seasonal Trend - 29th Nov 24
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past - 29th Nov 24
Gold After Trump Wins - 29th Nov 24
The AI Stocks, Housing, Inflation and Bitcoin Crypto Mega-trends - 27th Nov 24
Gold Price Ahead of the Thanksgiving Weekend - 27th Nov 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast to June 2025 - 24th Nov 24
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

The Fed Can’t Afford to Taper QE

Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing Aug 19, 2013 - 05:25 PM GMT

By: John_Handbury

Interest-Rates

The Federal Reserve Bank’s balance sheet looked pretty healthy in May this year.  On the asset side of the balance sheet is the large amount of paper that the Fed has bought to supposedly stimulate the economy.  This consists mostly of treasury bonds and notes and mortgage-back securities of a value approaching $3 trillion.


On the liability side of the balance sheet is the money the Fed created to buy these instruments, most of which is in bank reserve accounts, which the banks are not allowed to lend, but they collect a bit of interest.  Treasury Bond and Mortgage-backed Security prices were higher than the Fed had purchased them during QE1 and QE2 and the ongoing $85 billion/month purchases for the third round of quantitative easing, so the process had a net gain. 

The fact that the Fed was actually profiting from this arrangement has no doubt put Bernanke in a good light and provided political support for the process.

However, since Bernanke whispered in May that the Fed will start “tapering” these asset purchases, the market has assumed the worst, i.e., that bond prices will crash without the support of quantitative easing (although historically quite the opposite has happened when these bond purchases have ceased).  Thus bond prices have fallen almost 15% since and yields have soared.  This means the asset side of the balance sheet has fallen about $500 Billion, an amount not to be sneezed at, in fact over 10% of the entire US gross national product earned other those same four months.  This “lost” value could be very deflating.

Also the recent drop in bond prices has had exactly the opposite effect to what the Fed has aimed to do, that is, decrease long-term interest rates.  Interest rates are increasing all along the yield curve and could very easily hinder the fragile recovery we have been seeing.  So the Fed is in an uneasy place right now.  They need to continue buying paper assets to protect the paper assets they already have.  It seems unlikely that the Fed will start an aggressive tapering sequence, especially with Bernanke retiring soon and not wanting to leave a legacy of debt for his QE process as well as a moribund economy. It would be like leaving the casino a loser – very hard to do.

I believe the Fed will be very cautious not to spook the markets and incite a run on bonds and possibly the stock markets too.  They are in a position of great influence at this time with the market reacting to every word they utter.  They know they can significantly improve bond prices at this point simply by doing one thing – nothing new.

By John Handbury

Independent Trader
johnhandbury@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Handbury - All rights reserved.

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilizing methods believed reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Do your own due diligence.

John Handbury  Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in