#Powell

16 05, 2022

Karen Petrou: When the Fed Goes from Whatever-It-Takes to Anything-We-Can-Think-Of

2023-02-21T15:11:51-05:00May 16th, 2022|The Vault|

On Thursday, the Washington Post included an article on all the ways in which inflation hurts middle-income families, the acute shortage of baby formula, and the cooking-oil shortage’s cost impact in places ranging from a D.C. shop selling doughnuts to sub-Saharan Africa.  Other articles chronicled stablecoins’ instability even as stock markets wobbled precariously above going so deeply into correction that investors are not just chastened, but also cudgeled.  The same day, Chairman Powell won his second term by a wide margin even as he told Marketplace that he couldn’t promise a soft landing, didn’t mean to commit the FOMC to only fifty basis-point hikes, and knows how hard inflation hits for most households while being unsure that the Fed can do much about it.  What markets make of this muddle remains to be seen by those not too faint of heart to look.  What I know it means is that a White House under acute political pressure will ultimately do its best to transfer blame from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 20th and Constitution at considerable cost to coherent policy.

One might discount my prediction of a political reckoning for the Fed by pointing to President Biden’s stout defense of his central bank last week when he tried to show the nation how much he was doing to quell inflation.  But a careful read of Mr. Biden’s statements shows a focus more on the Fed’s independence than on its skill.  So far, Secretary Yellen has persuaded White House …

9 03, 2022

FedFin Analysis: Payment-System Access

2023-04-04T10:54:03-04:00March 9th, 2022|The Vault|

Following considerable controversy surrounding how Federal Reserve Banks grant master accounts, the FRB has proposed a somewhat more explicit set of guidelines than provided in its initial notice seeking views on expanding payment-system access. The first proposal laid out the Fed’s policy goals for granting access but said only that insured depositories would get the most straightforward review and other institutions would be subject to more detailed scrutiny. The Fed has now reissued that proposal and differentiated applicants into three classes, getting the lightest to the strictest review…..

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.…

15 02, 2022

FedFin: Stablecoin Legislative Consensus in Sight, But from a Distance

2023-04-04T15:59:02-04:00February 15th, 2022|The Vault|

Despite fierce partisan fighting over pending Fed nominations, today’s Senate Banking hearing on stablecoin regulation was considerably more bipartisan that last week’s HFSC session (see Client Report CRYPTO24).  Both Chairman Brown (D-OH) and Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) are in broad agreement on a two-tier structure in which stablecoins are issued either by banks or by nonbanks subject to strict reserve-asset, AML, and related regulation.

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here

14 02, 2022

Karen Petrou: Two Regulatory Decisions That Will Define the Future of Money

2023-04-04T16:07:43-04:00February 14th, 2022|The Vault|

Like all of you, we at FedFin spend a lot of time watching the U.S. Congress, but I’m increasingly wondering why.  Sure, there’s the blood and guts.  Watching Congressional deliberations is more and more like being a spectator at a hockey game for the fights or NASCAR races for the next fiery crash.  Does any of this carnage really matter?  Not much when it comes to vital, urgent financial policy questions such as what money has come to be in the United States.  With Congress mired in a never-ending cock fight, regulators hold the fate of finance mostly in their own fierce grip.  Even without deployment of the Fed’s nuclear CBDC option, two developments last week show clearly how much power regulators have to redefine U.S. digital currency.

First, there was outgoing FDIC Chair McWilliams’ offhand suggestion in her final remarks that stablecoins have all the characteristics of fiat currency deposits and thus could be eligible for FDIC insurance under current law.  As soon as he took the helm, Acting FDIC Chairman Gruenberg demanded tough cryptocurrency regulation, but he didn’t rule out deposit status for at least some stablecoins if the agency was satisfied with their stability.

The impact of an FDIC decision deeming at least some stablecoins to be deposits is hard to over-estimate.  As I detail in my book, what’s actually in a bank deposit isn’t what most people think they hold, i.e., a virtual pile of dollars.  In fact, money in the bank is …

14 02, 2022

Karen Petrou: Two Regulatory Decisions That Will Define the Future of Money

2023-04-04T16:07:34-04:00February 14th, 2022|The Vault|

Like all of you, we at FedFin spend a lot of time watching the U.S. Congress, but I’m increasingly wondering why.  Sure, there’s the blood and guts.  Watching Congressional deliberations is more and more like being a spectator at a hockey game for the fights or NASCAR races for the next fiery crash.  Does any of this carnage really matter?  Not much when it comes to vital, urgent financial policy questions such as what money has come to be in the United States.  With Congress mired in a never-ending cock fight, regulators hold the fate of finance mostly in their own fierce grip.  Even without deployment of the Fed’s nuclear CBDC option, two developments last week show clearly how much power regulators have to redefine U.S. digital currency.

First, there was outgoing FDIC Chair McWilliams’ offhand suggestion in her final remarks that stablecoins have all the characteristics of fiat currency deposits and thus could be eligible for FDIC insurance under current law.  As soon as he took the helm, Acting FDIC Chairman Gruenberg demanded tough cryptocurrency regulation, but he didn’t rule out deposit status for at least some stablecoins if the agency was satisfied with their stability.

The impact of an FDIC decision deeming at least some stablecoins to be deposits is hard to over-estimate.  As I detail in my book, what’s actually in a bank deposit isn’t what most people think they hold, i.e., a virtual pile of dollars.  In fact, money in the bank is …

31 01, 2022

Karen Petrou: CBDC’s Big Empty

2023-04-05T16:20:36-04:00January 31st, 2022|The Vault|

Anyone looking for even a scintilla of a clue buried in a hint of an intention in the Fed’s CBDC discussion draft hunted in vain for guidance on the most consequential strategic inflection point for the U.S. financial-services industry, the financial system, the global payment system, and even the future of money.  Once, we all would have had to wait for augers from the on-high Fed to see the fate the imperium decreed.  Now, the Fed still thinks it rules all it surveys even though it doesn’t.  Soon, it may find out the hard way that fast-moving companies crafting digital money care as little for the central bank’s wishes as they did for those of the media, hotel, and retailing magnates they have already supplanted.

This is not to say that we must necessarily have a central-bank digital currency.  As I noted in my book, a democracy must ensure privacy and competition in ways China, for one example, disregards.  Rather, it’s to say that the U.S. will not have a secure store of value or sound medium of exchange without a payment system on which the economy stands firm.  Payment-system finality, accessibility, ubiquity, and cyber-security are all at risk if the Fed cedes the CBDC field without first and fast establishing the new framework it knows we need.

Nor am I saying that CBDC is inevitable because stablecoins are a certainty.  Libra’s ignominious demise is ample evidence of the power regulators still have to set the terms of payment …

27 01, 2022

FedFin on: U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency

2023-04-11T16:11:59-04:00January 27th, 2022|The Vault|

Months after initially promising to release a discussion draft on central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Federal Reserve is now seeking comment on whether and how it might create one. Reflecting the hesitancy of several FRB leaders, Chairman Powell included, the draft emphatically states that the Board has made no decision to issue a CBDC and, should it do so, it will seek at least tacit approval from both Congress and whichever Administration is in charge at the time.

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.…

18 01, 2022

Karen Petrou: Inflation’s High Cost to Competition and Comity

2023-04-24T15:18:29-04:00January 18th, 2022|The Vault|

It’s not news that the latest inflation data are disastrous.  Even if they won’t last, as Mr. Powell again assured Congress, it sure is hard to see how the combination of pressures detailed in the inflation data lead to ta rate even close to the FOMC’s median projection for 2022 of 2.6 percent.  This means that real rates will remain negative throughout 2022 and well into 2023.  Indeed, given that the FOMC’s median projection for the near-term fed funds rate never gets above 2.1 percent, even the Fed has tacitly conceded that negative real rates may well be  prolonged absent either divine intervention or another devilishly-deep recession.  In June of last year, I predicted that U.S. inflation would not prove transitory and forecast the political impact finally understood at the highest levels of the Biden White House.  Much is also now being written about the inequality impact I described last year, but little is said about the sum total impact of these sorry facts of life on the financial system.  These may also prove anything but transitory.

The first financial-system impact of high inflation and slow growth for anything but the S&P is both political and structural.  With his back increasingly pushed to the wall by inflation’s toxic equality impact, Mr. Biden defended himself against the latest CPI numbers by arguing that many of them are due to monopolistic price controls best cured by rapid antitrust initiatives such as the one already launched against the meat industry.

Other …

13 01, 2022

FedFin on: Brainard Navigates Troubled Waters; Looks Like Smooth Sailing for Thompson

2023-04-24T15:40:10-04:00January 13th, 2022|The Vault|

At today’s confirmation hearing, Gov. Brainard took a lot of the heat on inflation Republicans only mildly mentioned during Mr. Powell’s Tuesday confirmation hearing (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE67). As we anticipated (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE66) this reflects the fact that the GOP is united in opposition to her appointment as Fed vice chair; should she hold Sen. Manchin (D-WV) she will be confirmed; if not, perhaps not. Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) also used the occasion to signal – again unsurprisingly – GOP opposition should Sarah Bloom Raskin be nominated….

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.…

12 01, 2022

FedFin Forecast: Prudential Regulatory Framework Set for Structural Change Largely Built on Current Standards

2023-04-24T15:49:23-04:00January 12th, 2022|The Vault|

As promised, FedFin begins our 2022 forecasts with this in-depth report on bank regulation. In general, we conclude that the context of decisions in 2022 and beyond will shift from a focus on tailoring efficiencies and burden relief to one emphasizing risk mitigation, fairness, equity, and — for the very biggest banks — a smaller systemic footprint. This report looks at the impact of pending personnel decisions as well as the outlook for climate-risk, new capital rules, FBO standards, and other key issues….

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.…

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