[lbo-talk] The Fed, doing their part to combat the deficit ...

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Mar 22 15:33:07 PDT 2011


On Mar 22, 2011, at 6:13 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:


> Doug writes:
>
>> It's looking like a lot of those initial estimates of
>> the cost of the bailout were overdone.
>
> It certainly could have gone the other way, but I think this kind of thing should shut Ron Paul up for a while. In fact, I'd like to see the Fed do more of this kind of work: how about a $50B "Maiden Lane Special" to cover the states until they can dig themselves out without resorting to the kind of fiscal violence that we're seeing in Ohio and Wisconsin?

Hey, I like that idea!

Of course, it could have gone the other way, but we've seen several times now that the gov can take on the role of the proverbial actor who buys when there's blood in the streets - the ultimate contrarian play.

Along these lines, some years ago, I discovered that the Fed has typically made money on its foreign exchange interventions. Everyone thinks otherwise, but I actually looked at the record. I think this is true of other central banks, but I haven't fact-checked that.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list