The Federal Reserve Now Owns 15 Percent of the U.S. Treasury Market

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Ad Orientem
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The Federal Reserve Now Owns 15 Percent of the U.S. Treasury Market

Post by Ad Orientem » Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:00 pm

According to the U.S. Treasury, as of February 29, 2020, there was $16.9 trillion in marketable U.S. Treasury securities outstanding. Of that amount, at the end of February, the Federal Reserve held $2.47 trillion or 14.6 percent – making it, by far, the largest single holder of U.S. Treasuries anywhere in the world.

By this past Friday, the Fed’s ownership of the Treasury market had increased to $3.12 trillion. It had grown by an unprecedented $650 billion in one month’s time. And on March 23, the Fed announced that it would buy unlimited amounts of both Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities “to support smooth market functioning.”

But exactly how can a so-called “free market” function smoothly if the country’s own central bank is cornering the market. Salomon Brothers paid a $290 million fine and came close to getting slapped with criminal charges by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1992 for manipulating prices in the Treasury market. And make no mistake about it, the Fed’s massive purchases are having a demonstrative impact on driving up prices in the Treasury market while driving down yields – meaning the income that determines if senior citizens in America can buy real groceries or have to live on one pot of soup for the week.

At the end of 2007, before the Wall Street crash in 2008, a senior citizen could invest $10,000 in a 10-year Treasury note and get $400 a year in income, or 4 percent. Today, that same $10,000 generates just 0.67 percent or $67. Seniors who were living on their Treasury income have experienced an 83 percent drop in income while food costs and pharmaceutical costs have soared.

If the Fed keeps up this pace of Treasury buying, it will own the entire Treasury market in about 22 months. If you look at the New York Fed’s list of the Treasury securities that are being submitted to it for sale by Wall Street’s trading houses versus the amounts the New York Fed is buying, you will see that Wall Street is puking up Treasuries in something akin to projectile vomiting.

Read the rest here...
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/03/ ... two-years/
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Smith1776
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Re: The Federal Reserve Now Owns 15 Percent of the U.S. Treasury Market

Post by Smith1776 » Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:14 pm

This just makes me all the more glad that I invest my money in the PP.

Very interesting content. Thank you for posting.
I still find the James Rickards portfolio fascinating.
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shekels
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Re: The Federal Reserve Now Owns 15 Percent of the U.S. Treasury Market

Post by shekels » Sun Mar 29, 2020 10:59 am

We are in the End Game now.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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