by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:
Massive gyrations on the balance sheet after FDIC’s take-down of First Republic, sale of its assets to JP Morgan, and FDIC’s loan to JPM.
Today we were served a special spectacle on the Federal Reserve’s weekly balance sheet. Total assets dropped by $59 billion in the week, and by $230 billion in the six weeks since peak bank bailout, to $8.50 trillion, as QT continued on track with a big Treasury securities roll-off, and as First Republic, the FDIC, and JP Morgan were splattered all over this balance sheet.
The one thing about the financial world that never ceases to amaze me is how far behind the curve mainstream economists always seem to be. Not long ago we had both Janet Yellen and Paul Krugman, economists supposedly at the front of the pack, both proving to be utterly ignorant (or strategically dishonest) on the effects of central bank stimulus measures and the threat of inflation. In fact, they both consistently denied such a threat existed until they were crushed by the evidence.
