by Robert Aro
Mises.org
June begins and we are now two months past the dark days of the Great Lockdown, when the Dow closed at 18,592 points on March 23. Despite having no duty to protect the stock market, investor’s prayers were answered when the Fed announced one of the greatest anticapitalist interventions the nation has ever seen. The extensive new measures to support the economy promised a vast array of credit facilities to “support households and businesses” by supporting “the flow of credit” in times of crisis.
Let’s see how the central bankers have saved the economy since:
The Fed now has $106.9 billion in loans (assets) on its balance sheet, a number that was only $1 million, or virtually nil for a central bank as of March 1. Of this $106 billion, $49.2 billion is from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Liquid Facility and $34.9 billion from the Corporate Credit Facility LLC (CCF LLC) used to buy corporate bonds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).