2008-04-30blogspot.com

The proposal essentially would grant vast authority to the Federal Reserve and the government to virtually control markets. It will give them the ability to gather private market information and unilaterally decide if positions taken with that private money for private investment is somehow negative for the financial system. It could then force the unwinding of those positions. Initially the powers will be used to supposedly prevent over leverage in the system (that the Fed created itself). But it doesn't exclude the situation where a hedge fund that is long puts can be forced to unwind those puts at the government's discretion.

The Federal Reserve and the treasury are very clever in blaming free markets for the mess we're in to garner more power. Ironically it's government intervention in markets that has caused the problem in the first place. Through their policies creating negative real interest rates for years, speculative forces in the economy have been able to create vast amounts of debt.

This does not instill confidence.



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