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Stats

June 17, 2013

posted to PrefBlog on Tue 18th Jun 13

Overall it was mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums gaining 3bp, FixedResets up 5bp and DeemedRetractibles off 1bp. The averages concealed a lot of underlying volatility, however, as the Performance Highlights table is quite
CCS Upgraded by S&P

posted to PrefBlog on Tue 18th Jun 13

Standard & Poor’s has announced:Following a review under our revised insurance criteria, we are raising our ratings on Co-operators Financial Services Ltd. and its operating subsidiaries Co-operators General Insurance Co. and Co-operators Life Insurance
UNG Placed on CreditWatch-Negative by S&P

posted to PrefBlog on Tue 18th Jun 13

Standard and Poor’s has announced:We are placing our ratings on Union Gas Ltd. On CreditWatch with negative implications. The placement reflects that on parent Spectra Energy Corp. We will resolve this CreditWatch placement when we resolve the placement

Effective Fed Funds Rate: A Technical Explanation?

posted to PrefBlog on Thu 29th Jan 09

Assiduous Readers will remember the puzzle of the Effective Fed Funds Rate. Fed Funds were trading at 0.25% at a time when excess balances were earning 1.00% from the Fed, which appears to allow a risk-free arbitrage.A recent Fed Press Release and its attachment
March 17, 2008

posted to PrefBlog on Tue 18th Mar 08

The big news today is the JPMorgan takeover of Bear Stearns, which has been the subject of so much commentary I’ll keep mine to a minimum. The interesting part is that the Fed is taking a first-loss position on the mortgage paper:The steps were announced
March 12, 2008

posted to PrefBlog on Thu 13th Mar 08

Econbrowser’s James Hamilton has an interesting philosophical piece on the limits to the Fed’s ability to influence the economy, Asking too much of monetary policy:I am certainly a believer in the potential real effects, sometimes for good, sometimes

A funny thing happened on the way to the federal funds market

posted to macroblog on Fri 3rd Jul 09

Since the beginning of this year, the effective funds rate in the market for reserve balances has varied between zero and about 15 basis points below the interest rate the Federal Reserve pays on those reserve balances (see chart below, which runs through July
Not a bailout

posted to Econbrowser on Tue 18th Mar 08

How shall we describe what happened this weekend with Bear Stearns? The first big casualty of the credit crisis, yes. Bailout, no.Bear Stearns was an investment bank that made trades and created markets for a broad range of securities, including extensive use
TSLF

posted to Econbrowser on Sat 15th Mar 08

Last week the Fed announced yet another new measure to deal with the ongoing problems in credit markets in the form of a just-created Term Securities Lending Facility, which we're apparently invited to refer to affectionately as a TSLF.Hear the word of the