Here I offer some thoughts on Bloomberg's account that the Fed has made inquiries with its dealers about the feasibility of a significant increase in the Fed's reverse repo operations.

First, a little background. The traditional tool of monetary policy is an open market purchase, in which the Fed purchased U.S. Treasury securities that had previously been held by someone in the private sector. The Fed would pay for those securities by crediting deposits in an account that the selling bank had with the Federal Reserve. These reserve deposits of banks represent claims that the bank could use, if it wished, to withdraw green currency from the Federal Reserve. The volume of reserve deposits historically was extremely important in determining the interest rate at which banks would lend the deposits to one another overnight. The traditional understanding of monetary policy was that the Fed would

...

GLOBAL MARKETS-, dollar gains

(Refiles to fix typo in headline)

* U.S. stocks slump as fear of more bank failures grows

* Dollar rises versus yen after strong U.S. factory data

* Oil slips below $69 a barrel on equities, strong dollar

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday as growing concerns about the U.S. banking system and over whether a recent rally in equity markets is warranted drove investors to the relative safety of bonds and the dollar.

Oil prices fell as the economic concerns outweighed surprisingly bullish U.S. data: the manufacturing sector grew in August for the first time in 19 months, while pending home sales hits a two-year high in July.

Government bond prices on both sides of the Atlantic rose as falling stocks enhanced the allure of lower-risk safe-haven debt despite the fresh evidence supporting the view of a global economic recovery.

There are “new concerns about the health of the banking system, the number

...

U.S. stocks advanced on Wednesday after data showed July new home sales rose at their fastest pace in almost a year, while durable goods orders increased, but less than forecast excluding transportation.

Sales of new homes rose for a fourth straight month in July and at their fastest pace since September 2008, while the inventory of unsold homes fell to the lowest level in 16 years, the government reported.

“These are great numbers, and they should definitely add fuel to the move higher in the market,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“It’s all very positive, not just because of the macro implications but because they will drive consumer confidence numbers (higher).”

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 19.57 points, or 0.21 percent, to 9,558.86. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> rose 2.15 points, or 0.21 percent, to 1,030.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC>

...

Fitch Ratings reaffirmed the credit rating of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (CLI) as BBB. (The BBB-rating denotes a relatively strong credit quality with low default risk, and adequate capacity to meet current financial commitments.)

With a diverse portfolio of Class A office and industrial/flex properties, Mack-Cali is a leading real estate investment trust (REIT) in the US. As of Mar 31, 2009, its portfolio included 294 properties, spanning 33.8 million square feet with over 2,100 tenants.

Strategically, the company concentrates on a few select high-barrier geographic markets and derives most of its annualized base rents from New Jersey (NJ). Its major markets are Newark, NJ (20.0% of annualized base rents as of the first quarter of 2009); Jersey City, NJ (19.6%); Westchester Rockland, NY (15.6%), Bergen-Passaic, NJ (15.2%), and Philadelphia, NJ (9.2%).

While reaffirming Mack-Cali's credit rating, Fitch considered its strong liquidity, adequate debt service coverage, manageable debt maturity schedule, and ability

...

The base metals were mostly in positive territory on Tuesday. Copper fell all through the pre-dawn hours, but once New York opened it was all on the opposite direction, as it finished just off its intraday highs at $2.1137/lb., up just short of 4 cents from Friday.

Nickel was flat until early New York trading, then took off, blasting past the $6 mark to close at $6.0267/lb., up almost 30 cents. Zinc was modestly lower at $0.6674/lb., down two-thirds of a cent. Aluminum edged higher, ending at $0.6426/lb., up nearly a half-cent, while lead added two-thirds of a cent, to $0.6428/lb.

Copper led the charge higher, as the big jump in consumer sentiment caused the market mood to turn on a dime. Earlier in the day, the metals had fallen, as the dollar strengthened and investors were worrying that world economies could take longer than expected to recover, driving down demand.

The

...

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as investors bet the U.S. economic downturn may be easing following reports on fourth-quarter economic growth and weekly jobless claims that landed roughly in line with expectations.

Standouts in the broad run-up included shares of Best Buy , up 11.3 percent to $37.24 after the electronics chain’s quarterly profit topped estimates and its yearly outlook boosted optimism about consumer spending.

Retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc was among the top boosts on the Dow, rising more than 2 percent to $52.88, while the S&P retail index gained nearly 5 percent.

Shares of natural resources companies rose along with higher commodity prices. Shares of steel maker Nucor rose 5.6 percent to $41.25 and U.S. Steel Corp was up 5.9 percent to $24.86.

“Obviously the tide is shifting. We’ve gone from every piece of news being incrementally bad

...

PIt's another Fed day today, with the FOMC's two-day policy meeting set to wrap up later and the results to be announced at roughly 2:15 eastern. Market betting is that the Fed will cut rates by 50 basis points to a record-low 0.5%. But one has to wonder if that really matters. The effective federal funds rate, determined by actual trading in the market, was just 18 basis points yesterday.brbrThe real question is how will the Fed further explain or define its new strategy of quantitative easing and flooding the banking system with reserves. Or as Bloomberg A href=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087sid=aJOGrevCE.M4amp;refer=homeexplains things/A this morning ...brbrThe Federal Reserve may today reduce its main interest rate to the lowest level on record and prepare for one of the boldest experiments in its 94-year history: using its balance sheet as the key tool for monetary policy.brbrThe Fed’s Open Market Committee will probably cut the benchmark ...

There's a lot of commentary -- more comprehensive and up to date than I can provide -- on the crisis and the attempts to resolve the logjam in the financial markets.[0], [1] But I stilll have a couple of thoughts about the causes, and the implications, of the process that has resulted in so much turmoil this week.

First, what is the source of the crisis? Is it as is asserted here in this statement from John McCain today?

....

There are certainly plenty of places to point fingers, and it may be hard to pinpoint the original event that set it all in motion. But let me give you an educated guess. The financial crisis we're living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the

...

There's a lot of commentary -- more comprehensive and up to date than I can provide -- on the crisis and the attempts to resolve the logjam in the financial markets.[0], [1] But I stilll have a couple of thoughts about the causes, and the implications, of the process that has resulted in so much turmoil this week.

First, what is the source of the crisis? Is it as is asserted here in this statement from John McCain today?

....

There are certainly plenty of places to point fingers, and it may be hard to pinpoint the original event that set it all in motion. But let me give you an educated guess. The financial crisis we're living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the

...