Das neue FED Ponzi Schema (genannt Temporary Auction facility) mTuL

Market observers continue to be confused about what they are falsely calling “liquidity problems”. As interbank rates like the Libor (quoted at 5.20% this morning) continue to fail to respond the central bank rate cuts, any thinking person ought to be able to connect the dots as to why. The reason: essentially no one is willing to make loans to dead men walking, or even the walking wounded at nominal low rates any more. The very definition of Ponzi finance is the borrowing of new funds to pay debt service on old debt that normal income does not support. Most lenders aren’t interested in unsound lending right now.

Despite this clear implication, the Fed grasps for new smoke and mirrors to provide a source of funds (called liquidity by the spinmeisters) so that lenders can continue to float bad loans. The latest looks like the Fed will get into the loan auction funding business. This in effect will allow lenders to bring fictitious capital to the table for low interest loans in which to buy the fictitious capital of other players. In otherwords it’s a circle jerk. Here’s how the scheme works.

The Fed said that commercial banks would be able to bid at auction for funds that would be drawn from the Temporary Auction Facility. The money would be intended to help cash-strapped banks raise money needed to keep making loans to businesses and consumers

The Fed said all banks judged to be in generally sound financial condition by their Fed regional bank would be eligible to participate in the auctions for funds. The first auction of $20 billion was scheduled for next Monday, followed by another auction of $20 billion on Dec. 20. The third and fourth auctions will be in January.

In otherwords instead of borrowing at the interbank rate, a little money (two a month for $20 billion) will be provided with fewer questions asked, to “qualified institutions” (probably loosely defined) to support a few Ponzi unit payments, or heaven forbid to make bids on Ponzi units themselves. The question is, how does this get into the hands of Joe Ultra Light Sixpack(JULS) to make payments on houses and cars? Or maybe on credit card asset backed? Does this provide more income for JULS to help support Ponzi units?

http://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=4245&mn=191183&pt=msg&mid=3659093

Hier noch Details zur Fed-Strategie:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071212/fed_credit_crunch.html?.v=5

Fed Move Doesn't Allay Wall Street Fears
Wednesday December 12, 6:19 pm ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer

Fed Works With Other Central Banks to Deal With Credit Crunch, but Wall Street Still Concerned

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a novel approach to injecting money into the banking system as it struggles to combat a severe credit crunch that threatens to drag the country into a recession.

The Fed said it would conduct two auctions next week where banks can bid for up to $40 billion in loans, money that they will have to bolster their own reserves. It marked the Fed's biggest concentrated effort to inject liquidity into the banking system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The hope is that the extra funds will spur increased lending on the part of the banks and combat a serious credit crunch that has made loans harder to obtain for many businesses and consumers.

The announcement initially lifted spirits on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrial average up as much as 272 points in early trading.

However, stocks could not hold on to most of those gains as investors began to worry that the Fed's new auction plan wouldn't be enough to deal with the worsening credit crunch. The Dow finished the day up only 41.13 points at 13,473.90.

That performance followed a huge 294-point drop in the Dow on Tuesday as investors expressed disappointment at what they viewed as a timid interest rate cut by the Fed. The central bank trimmed its federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, by a quarter-point. It was the third cut since September, but many investors had been hoping for a bolder move on the part of the Fed.

The Fed linked the new auction process to an announcement that it was extending a line of credit in dollars to the European Central Bank and the national bank of Switzerland so that those institutions could better deal with credit problems in Europe. The Fed said it was also coordinating with the central banks of England and Canada.

The efforts are seeking to restore confidence that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Fed and the monetary authorities in other countries are doing enough to deal with the spreading global credit crisis.

"They are trying to help hard-pressed banks raise much-needed cash. The banking system is under severe pressure because the banks don't want to lend to each other," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

The Fed's new program will begin with two auctions next week and another two in January. The first auction for up to $20 billion will occur on Dec. 17, followed by a Dec. 20 auction for another $20 billion.

The Fed is trying the auction program as an experiment to provide another avenue for providing loans to banks because banks have shied away from borrowing from the Fed's discount window because of the stigma that can be linked to banks who make frequent use of it.

"This is a creative way to try to get more cash into the system without marking anyone as being in trouble," Zandi said.

In a statement timed before the start of trading on Wall Street, the Fed said it would hold two more auctions on Jan. 14 and Jan. 28. The size of the January auctions will be determined later.

"This is not about particular financial institutions with particular problems. It is about market functioning," said a senior Federal Reserve official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the actions.

This Fed official, who spoke to reporters on a conference call, said that the adverse reaction of Wall Street on Wednesday had nothing to do with the timing of the announcement. This official said discussions with other central banks about an enhanced action plan had been ongoing for some time.

Wall Street investors and private economists generally applauded the Fed's latest effort to combat the country's worst credit crisis in nearly a decade. But private economists said it still was unclear just how successful the auctions would be in overcoming banks' concerns about getting direct loans from the Fed.

"Clearly, the Fed is feeling its way in the dark here," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

The Fed said commercial banks would be able to bid at auction for funds that would be drawn from the newly created Temporary Auction Facility.

The Fed said all banks judged to be in generally sound financial condition by their Fed regional bank would be eligible to participate in the auctions for funds.

The Fed said the new auction process should help supply needed cash to financial instititutions when other lines of credit were "under stress."

The experience gained from the four scheduled auctions would be "helpful in assessing the potential usefulness" of this new process to provide funds to U.S. banks, the central bank said. Fed officials indicated more auctions would be scheduled if the first four were successful.

The Fed statement said the temporary swap arrangements being set up would provide up to $20 billion in reserves for the European Central Bank and up to $4 billion for the Swiss National Bank. The reserves would be available for up to six months.