Monday, November 30, 2009

Testing Ben's Tool

This is just a test. Should the Fed really need to fight inflation, they have no idea how they will do so without sending interest rates through the roof. But for now, more make believe triparty reverse repos are ahead.

Or as the Fed put it:
As noted in the October 19, 2009 Statement Regarding Reverse Repurchase Agreements, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been working internally and with market participants on operational aspects of triparty reverse repurchase agreements to ensure that this tool will be ready if the Federal Open Market Committee decides it should be used. In the coming weeks, as an extension of this work, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York plans to conduct a series of small-scale, real-value transactions with primary dealers. Like the earlier rounds of testing, this work is a matter of prudent advance planning by the Federal Reserve. It does not represent any change in the stance of monetary policy, and no inference should be drawn about the timing of any change in the stance of monetary policy in the future.

These forthcoming operations are being conducted to ensure operational readiness at the Federal Reserve, the triparty repo clearing banks, and the primary dealers. The operations have been designed to have no material impact on the availability of reserves or on market rates. Specifically, the aggregate amount of outstanding transactions will be very small relative to the level of excess reserves, and the transactions will be conducted at current market rates.

The results of these operations will be both posted on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s public website where all temporary open market operation results are posted and reflected as a liability in tables 1 and 9 in the Federal Reserve System’s consolidated balance sheet statements.

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