United States Department of the Treasury

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) Please consider Treasury Secretary Snow reiterates strong dollar policy. AP Worldstream 12-03-2004 Dateline: NEW YORK U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow reiterated Friday that the Bush administration has a strong dollar policy.

By Andrew Leonard This is the exact opposite of what conservative economists and politicians have been predicting all year. But it is as close as we can get to a dispassionate, nonpartisan judgment by the market as to the likely consequences of current U.S. fiscal policy. I intend to keep watching. As long as the...

By Andrew Leonard In terms of sheer total dollars, the U.S. government has never borrowed as much money as it has in fiscal year 2009, which ends this month: nearly $2 trillion, according to Mark Gongloff in the Wall Street Journal. Treasurys have withstood what could be the worst of the supply storm. Those expe...

By Andrew Leonard Citigroup wants the U.S. government out. The The Wall Street Journal expresses it most poetically: "Eager to shed the stigma of being a ward of the state," Citigroup is exploring ways to get the U.S. Treasury to reduce its 34 percent stake in the financial institution.

By Tom Petruno California’s planned sale of up to $10.5 billion in short-term notes is scheduled for the week of Sept. 21, Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office said today. The debt, known as revenue anticipation notes, or RANs, will bridge the gap between near-term...

By Tom Petruno The government is on track to run a deficit of $1.58 trillion in the current fiscal year, the White House Office of Management and Budget said today. That is $262 billion less than previously forecast, mainly because of smaller-than-expected outlays for the financial-system rescue.

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) Goldman is a great firm with a stellar culture, and in most circumstances it’s risk management and funding practices have been second to none. Except when the crisis hit. It stood with the rest of Wall Street as a firm with longer-dated, less liquid assets funded with extremely short-dated...

By Andrew Leonard If it seems like the fate of the world hangs in the balance every time the U.S. Treasury auctions off another batch of bonds, that's because it kind of does. This week, the Treasury is scheduled to offer up for sale $104 billion dollars worth of two-year, five-year, and seven-year notes. That's...

By Tom Petruno Treasury bond yields had been rising for most of the spring as increasingly optimistic investors found better ideas for their money, including stocks. Yields spiked last week as the government sold $65 billion more in bonds to finance the federal deficit, leaving the market awash in sec...

By Andrew Leonard Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs tells us that if the bonds are actually fake, it is without question the work of nefarious North Korean counterfeiters. But a DailyKos diarist, problem is, spawns his own ramshackle theory tying the news to purported U.S. government market manipulation and specu...

Barclays Capital strategist Michael Pond thinks it's time for the Federal Reserve to pull out the really big guns and announce it will buy $1 trillion in US Treasury debt in order to counteract a recent jump in Treasury and mortgage interest rates. ...

 NY According to the Journal, a survey of prominent currency watchers revealed a diminishing interest in US Treasury notes. The cause for this loss of appetite? The threat of inflation and low interest rates -- in short, the prospect of a poor return on ...

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) But Chrysler's chief financial officer told major lenders Wednesday that even if a deal can be worked out between the government and lenders, the company still will need to file for bankruptcy to seal a Fiat alliance, said people familiar with the situation. The executive, Ron Kolka, tol...

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) There is just one way to make the US government’s policy towards the banks work. That is for the Congress to vote another $1.5 trillion worth of additional TARP money for the banks - $1 trillion to buy the remaining toxic assets off their balance sheets, and $0.5 trillion worth of additional ca...

By Tom Petruno At Goldman Sachs Group, the U.S. Treasury became one managing director too many. Goldman Chairman Lloyd Blankfein had made clear in recent weeks that he wanted out of the government partnership necessitated by the Treasury’s TARP investment.

By Tom Petruno On one hand, China and other foreign owners of U.S. Treasury bonds have a vested interest in the Fed's new gameplan: If it succeeds in pushing bond yields lower, the result will be to boost the value of outstanding Treasuries issued at higher fixed rates. That ought to make foreign investors w...

By Tom Petruno The Federal Reserve opted for shock treatment today in its continuing efforts to ease the credit crunch: The central bank said it would buy up to $300 billion of longer-term U.S. Treasury securities for its own portfolio over the next...

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) As it stands, the government loans fall below existing debt secured by most assets for Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler and Detroit-based GM. Prior lenders have first position on some assets. The government has first position on assets not already pledged. Other Pay Cuts

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) Japanese stocks ended lower Tuesday, in volatile trading highlighted by a midday announcement that the Bank of Japan will resume buying shares held by financial institutions, with plans to spend up to 1 trillion yen ($111.5 billion) through April 2010.

By Tom Petruno What’s more, having the Fed as a buyer could keep longer-term Treasury yields from rising in the face of the record sums the government is expected to borrow this year to finance bailouts of the financial system and economy. He also noted that the Fed can justify buying mortgage bonds by arg...

Despite support from New York's congressional delegation, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has written Treasury Secretary Paulson saying he has "serious issues" with the deal from a national security perspective, according to the Washington Times.

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) The United States Department of the Treasury will determine eligibility of participants and allocation of resources under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) pursuant to the Targeted Investment Program. Financial Institutions (as defined in EESA) will be considered f...

That's an objective, market-based forecast, but I think it's wrong. Yes, the deleveraging of the economy has set loose deflationary forces. However, the Fed has put the money pump into overdrive, and it is hard to see any way in which deflation could be a headline-grabber for many more mont...

By info@varengold.de (Varengold Wertpapierhandelsbank AG) Good morning from beautiful and cold Hamburg. The FOREX market started to get stronger after the surprising and important new announced government plan of the United States. However we hope for good news and wish you all the best in trading for today. Market review On Tuesday the U.S. Treasury...

By Blake Hounshell Asia If passed, Iraq's troop deal with the United States would give PM Nuri al-Maliki expanded powers. President Bush meets with outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert at the White House. President-elect Obama formally announces his economic team.

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) Now, an industry group is trying to fix the mess, which New York Fed Executive Vice President William Dudley said could cause the U.S. borrowing rates to rise if not rectified. The Treasury Market Practices Group wants to impose a “penalty” on failed trades, a move that may result in borrower...

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) The difference between the five-year swap rate and the benchmark Treasury yield, known as the swap spread, narrowed to 78.56 basis points today, the lowest since May 22. Yields on two- and five-year notes and 30-year bonds fell to the lowest since the Treasury began regular issuance of the...

By Mark Weisbrot Can South America escape the wrath of the economic and financial storms that have their epicenter in the United States? Since the financial meltdown began... Can South America escape the wrath of the economic and financial storms that have their epicenter in the United States? Since the fi...

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican on the Senate finance committee, asked Eric Thorson, inspector-general of the Treasury, to investigate the "independence" of several Treasury officials who formerly worked at Goldman Sachs and serve as advisers to Treasury secretary Han...

By dandelionsalad For years, the US government’s budget has been dependent on foreigners financing the red ink. Countries such as Japan and China and OPEC suppliers of oil to the US have huge export surpluses with the US. They recycle the dollars by buying US Treasury bonds, thus financing the US government’...

By Yves Smith(noreply@blogger.com) In the U.S., some economists say deflation may occur if market conditions deteriorate much further and job losses proliferate. But Teizo Taya, an adviser for Daiwa Institute of Research and a former policy board member of the Bank of Japan, says it's unlikely that the U.S. will experience Jap...

By Michael Shedlock(noreply@blogger.com) Let's explore the sideline cash theory in detail starting with an email from Minyan "PB" who writes: It appears that the Treasury isn’t going to guarantee money markets after December 18th and only funds that were in money markets on September 19th.

By Tom Petruno Wells, long one of the strongest of the biggest U.S. banks, had said it didn’t need the government’s money, which was in the form of a preferred stock investment that would pay the Treasury 5% a year in dividends. But Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson insisted that all the nation’s biggest ba...

By Tom Petruno By contrast, the government has made Series EE savings bonds far less attractive than I-bonds or conventional Treasury securities: On Monday, the Treasury cut the annualized fixed rate on newly issued EE bonds to 1.3% from 1.4% on bonds sold in the previous six months.

It's a global flight to quality," said Paul Calhoun, a business professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. "The U.S. Treasury has no equal when it comes to being a safe haven." But she said it's unlikely that many manufactures will make lasting business decisions based on short-term...

By Mark Frauenfelder The thin silver lining in James Howard Kunstler's dark thundercloud of doom is that Americans will once again get to work "making things, growing things, and rebuilding things" If the financial system completes its self-destruction -- and that's looking more and more like a real possi...

By Andrew Leonard Two weeks ago, the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Daily reported China's government had expressed interest in purchasing "at least" $200 billion worth of new U.S. Treasuries, to be issued soon by Hank Paulson and Co. in order to pay for the ballooning operating expenses of the U.S. government. Ch...

By Joseph Lazzaro Interest rates for one-week loans in dollars fell considerably early Tuesday, after the United States Government announced it would invest $250 billion in banks, in a recapitalization plan that mirrors those announced by Europe's major powers on Monday.

By Larry Kudlow Stocks are up over 900 points today, a record-breaking one-day rally. Good news is coming from the four corners of the world as the U.S., G-7, and G-20 are all working to stem the global banking crisis and credit freeze-up. Most importantly, the Europeans and the Brits got out in front of the cur...

By Joseph Lazzaro Meanwhile, currency traders interpreted Europe's move as a step toward financial system stabilization, a universally-welcomed step, said Currency Trader Andrew Resnick. Wang reiterated the need for the United States to "fulfill its obligations as part of this recovery process."

By Joseph Lazzaro As a result, the United States becomes perhaps the first country ever to experience a financial crisis, increase its budget deficit massively, and face a recession (or worse), without having its currency plunge, Resnick said. Further, the dollar's reserve currency status "has saved t...

But despite having what organization leaders and attorneys bill as strictly humanitarian goals, the Toledo-based Muslim charity has been labeled by the U.S. government as a possible supporter of terrorist groups, has had its assets frozen, and, in effect, has been shut down. Yesterday,...

By Blake Hounshell One thing we must recognize: Even with the new Treasury authorities, some financial institutions will fail," cautioned Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in comments alluding to the move. Asia Slovak Republic President Ivan Gasparovic visits the White House.

By Jayne Lyn Stahl The same way the media rolled over for Rupert Murdoch, the money markets will roll over for financial consolidation at the expense of the American consumer. It wouldn't be called a bailout if this were about taxpayers getting in over their heads; it'd be called welfare, and government han...

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson visits China this week amid concerns over their exported goods.

By bhounshell@ceip.org (Blake Hounshell) This just in: Iraq's government is failing to meet key political benchmarks. A top U.S. general is calling for Iraq to increase the size of its army by 20,000 troops. Even with such an increase, he says, Iraq won't be able to provide for its own security for at least five years. Asia

By Christopher Campbell Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Cannes, Celebrities and Controversy, The Weinstein Co., Movie Marketing, Politics, Michael MooreThis weekend marks the world premiere of Michael Moore's SiCKO at the Cannes Film Festival, and while we wait for the feedback -- including a Cine...

By bhounshell@ceip.org (Blake Hounshell) Even as the ad hoc committee investigating the conduct of Paul Wolfowitz concluded that he broke World Bank ethics rules, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was furiously dialing finance ministers around the world to shore up the Bank president's sagging position. 

By Jeremy 'Panda Man' Weidenhof Typically, no one in media notices the disconnect when “Bush’s tax cuts” get blamed for loss of revenue in a story about record-high revenue to the U.S. Treasury. More conservative readers probably realize that reducing steep tax burdens spurs economic activity, since folks can simply ke...

By Mark Weisbrot This instantaneous show of financial support for a newly installed dictatorship - one which immediately dissolved the country's constitution, general assembly, and Supreme Court - was unprecedented in the IMF's history. Typically the IMF does not react so quickly, even to an elected...