primary dealers

Where There’s A Rising ‘Dollar’ There Is Short Collateral But Plentiful ‘Reserves’

By |2015-03-03T16:40:03-05:00March 3rd, 2015|Bonds, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The Federal Reserve is running another large-scale test on its Term Deposit Facility (TDF), the account by which it intends to establish a European-style floor to its also intended interest rate corridor. Judging by the fact that nobody has paid any attention to this test or the one that preceded it, except for those that were fooled into thinking the [...]

Searching For Fail, and Still Finding It

By |2014-08-20T17:09:39-04:00August 20th, 2014|Bonds, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

While the credit markets were looking elsewhere these past few weeks, funding markets are again off their axis as repo fails spiked significantly one more time. The current level of fails is not quite that of June, but it is enough to engender some more pause about financial plumbing. For the most part, explanations have been offered on the supply [...]

Basel III and The ‘Costs’ of Competition

By |2014-06-30T14:48:07-04:00June 30th, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

My colleague Margie Fernandez flagged a research report from Oppenheimer on the ongoing Basel implementation. It has been calculated, through various methodologies, that the implementation of both Basel III and Dodd-Frank may be “upwards of 15% of operating profits of small banks.” Now it should be noted that these figures were derived from a meeting with Frank Keating, former governor [...]

Taper Narrative Completely Destroyed By The Fed’s Own Tools

By |2013-08-22T10:00:15-04:00August 22nd, 2013|Markets|

Monetary policy is rendered by the FOMC in Washington, but the operational end is conducted by the Open Market Desk at the Federal Reserve Branch in New York (FRBNY). The “desk” won’t conduct policy operations with just any counterparty, however. The Fed “carefully” screens potential banks for several characteristics that make them worthy of doing business. These chosen few are [...]

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