Peter's Blog

While Fed Talks About Taper, Balance Sheet Grows $111 Billion in August

The Fed balance sheet stands at $8.33 trillion, up $111 billion from the prior month-end. The chart below shows how the Fed Balance sheet has grown by instrument over the last 18 months. The major surge from COVID can be clearly seen as $2.5T was added within 2 months. The monthly changes since then reflect […]

Fed Balance Sheet July 2021: 143B Added

The Federal Reserve has three primary tools to conduct Monetary Policy: reserve requirements, the discount rate, and open market operations (Quantitative Easing). Open market operations are how the Fed uses its balance sheet to provide liquidity to the market. More details can be found here. The Fed defines Open Market Operations as:

Another Fed Balance Sheet Record; Where’s the Exit Door?

For months, the markets have anticipated the Fed tightening monetary policy in order to take on rising inflation. At the June FOMC meeting, the central bank even hinted that it might start raising interest rates in 2023 instead of 2024, and the central bankers apparently talked about talking about tapering their quantitative easing bond-buying program. […]

Questions Remain as the Fed Finally Begins to Reverse QE

Last week, Janet Yellen announced the Federal Reserve will begin the much anticipated “tapering” of its massive balance sheet. The Fed chair also hinted another interest rate hike is in the works. After the most recent FOMC meeting, we raised the question: Is this a viable path forward, or is the central bank playing a game […]