Lawson for Congress

Nov 06 by BJ Lawson

Today we celebrate the Fed’s balance sheet topping $2 trillion, led by purchases of commercial paper that may include a stealth, alternative mechanism for bailing out AIG:

Just two weeks into its operation, the Fed’s commercial paper facility expanded by nearly $100 billion. The Fed now owns something like 20% of all the commercial paper outstanding, holding a total of $243 billion of the short term loans.

It’s unclear who is selling the commercial paper to the Fed. One guess is that it’s AIG, which has not been borrowing as much from the dedicated AIG facility as may have been anticipated given the size of its liabilities. AIG’s borrowings under the special facility actually ...