Internet Topics

Provide the article title and author for any article you read. Remember the aim of this assignment is to acquaint you with some sources of information available on the Internet.

  1. Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet: Go to www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/h41.pdf to see a recent balance sheet statement for the Federal Reserve System.

(a) During the financial crisis and the pandemic, the Federal Reserve directly allocated credit by purchasing privately issued securities. Describe the components of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet that are privately issued securities.

(b) What are the repurchase agreements on the asset side?

(c) Describe what the following assets are:

  1. Net portfolio holdings of Corporate Credit Facilities
  2. Net portfolio holdings of MS Facilities

iii. Net portfolio holdings of Municipal Facilities LLC

  1. Net portfolio holdings of TALF II LLC
  2. Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility

In a paragraph, discuss the moral hazard problems that may arise in these programs and discuss the problems with the quality of the collateral. What kind of risk is the Federal Reserve potentially taking on?

(a) On the liabilities side, what are reverse repurchase agreements?

(b) What fraction of total assets is currency in circulation?

(c) What fraction of total assets is reserves?

(d) Look at the H.4.1 for December 2006, December 2011 and January 2021. Discuss the differences among the three balance sheets in terms of size and composition of assets.

  1. Find the “Large Bank Capital Requirements^ on the website of the Federal Reserve System. At the end of this website is a table listing the minimum capital asset ratio (4.5%) and then two additional ratios – the stress capital buffer and a surcharge for very large institutions, such as Goldman Sachs. What are these two additional ratios?
  2. Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) were created during the Depression as part of Glass-Steagall. Its members are depository institutions and insurance companies. It is managed by the private sector while being a public/private government sponsored enterprise like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHLB system has a line of credit with the U.S. Treasury, with an implicit guarantee of its debt. Discuss the basic structure of the FHLB and the moral hazard problem it creates. Your answer should be about three paragraphs.

5.Contingent convertible bonds have recently been in the news. Describe a COCO. I recommend going to the Investopedia website.

6.The Treasury issues Treasury Inflation Protected bonds (TIPS). Go to the Investopedia web site, Google Finance or else CNN  to find a primer on TIPS. Provide a summary of what TIPS are, how they are structured , and other basic information about the bond. What do these bonds imply about expected inflation?

7.The “Shadow Banking System” is defined as hedge funds, conduits, SIV, money funds, monoline insurers, and investment banks. One explanation for why the financial crisis of the past year was so dramatic is that there was a “bank run” on the shadow banking system. Provide a two paragraph description of what a bank run means for the institutions in this list of “shadow banks.”