Did the Government Pay J P Morgan Chase 5 Basis Points to Borrow $271 Billion?

Buried in a financial supplement report to the first quarter 2010 SEC filing by J P Morgan Chase is a note that reports that J. P. Morgan chase was paid 5 basis points to borrow $271 billion in repos, which were part of the liquidity provided by the Fed to primary dealers (Wall Street firms) to strengthen financial markets.

A post by Edward Harrison on the blog Naked Capitalism argues that, in effect, the government (Federal Reserve) paid J P Morgan Chase to borrow money. Here is how he defends that charge against those who said that technically, the borrowing was not between J P Morgan Chase and the Fed, but between J P. Morgan Chase and its counterparties:

A commenter felt my reference to borrowing from the government was misleading. So, note that technically Repo counterparties are largely banks lending and borrowing excess reserves from one another. So, they are not really borrowing from the government. However, the Fed has set the Fed Funds rate at 0.00-0.25%. It controls the Fed Funds rate to within that range by making repurchase and reverse repo agreements that are collateralized loans to primary dealers of Treasury securities. The supply and demand dynamics in the repo market are largely controlled by the Fed in order to maintain the repo rate at the specified level set by the Fed.

So, while the repo market participants may be borrowing from each other, in essence they are borrowing from the Fed. The repo rate is set and controlled by the Federal Reserve. You could suspend all counterparty transactions in the market and have dealers just repo with the Fed and the net effect would be the same.
To read the entire post, click the link below:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/04/jpmorgan-gets-paid-to-borrow-271-billion-from-the-government.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John B. Stetson in the Gilded Age: Sitting on Top of the World

Image
Portrait of John B. Stetson by Irwin Benoni, 1895. Credit: John B. Stetson Company. Chapter Eight Sitting on Top of the World  Note: This sample chapter is from the forthcoming book Stetson: An American Icon             After conquering the West, the rapid growth of John B. Stetson &   Company after 1880 propelled the company toward another accomplishment – becoming the largest hatter in the world. While there are no historic data on the number of hats sold for most of the 1880s and 1890s, available information on earnings growth sheds light on the company’s rapid ascent up the ranks of hat makers. Starting from a net annual profit of $70,136 in 1879, Stetson’s earnings more than doubled to $185,457 eight years later in 1887.         By 1890, profits were sharply higher at $332,624 on an estimated $1,330,000 in revenues.   Based partly on those revenues and its ever-expanding factory complex, Stetson would claim in 1891 that it was the largest fur felt h
Read more

Crypto Index Funds Scramble to Win Over Hesitant Investors

Image
Hunter Horsley, chief executive officer of Bitwise Entrepreneurs believe that crypto index funds will greatly expand the crypto investor base just as the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 indexes have done for stocks.   By Robert Stowe England As entrepreneurs look to take cryptocurrency mainstream, they’re copying a tried-and-trusted approach from traditional investing: indexing. Index investing is designed to generate returns that are similar to a broad market index. This approach can reduce the risk of picking individual assets which might underperform the broad market. So, in the case of an equity index,  instead of picking say Exxon, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Ford, for example, you invest in the broad market.  Several new crypto index products have launched recently, offering investors new avenues into the market without some of the risks associated with putting money into single blockchain projects.  Crypto indexers take their cues from broad stock
Read more

Cathie Wood: The Big Risk Is Deflation, Not Inflation

The big risk ahead over the next five years is deflation, not inflation, and it will benefit investments in innovation strategies, according to Cathie Wood, founder and chief executive officer of Ark Invest. Robert England Innovator companies, who share prices have tumbled 30-35% from their heights earlier this year, are likely to return 25-30% in each of the next five years from their current levels, Wood is predicting. “In terms of the recent behavior of value stocks, especially those we believe are in harm’s way, compared to the severe draw down of innovation stocks, I like the set up very much,” Wood said.   While the current situation is reminiscent of the runup in prices from 2006 to 2008, the bond market is signaling that may not be the case, Wood said.    Instead of 10-year Treasury yields rising sharply higher as it did during the 2008 financial crisis, the bond market “has settled down” following a sharply higher move in yields earlier in the year on inflation fears and the p
Read more