Kevin O’Leary, Multimillionaire: No More Stimulus Checks, Only Unemployment Assistance for Americans

Introduction

Before the pandemic, people were living paycheck to paycheck. With the pandemic, many people have lost work. And, people who do have work, many cannot afford the extra expenses.

The federal government must step in to assist its citizens and residents to get through these rough times.

Rich people, unjustly and nearly criminally coddled by the population, need to stay out of the discussion. An example of a loud-mouth millionaire whose foolish statements are unwelcome is Kevin O’Leary (Canadian, member of the Conservative party).

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  Austerity

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  Neoliberal economic policy in action

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  “Free-market” result

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Kevin O’Leary, Multimillionaire

Into this terrible situation, Kevin O’Leary, whose net worth $400 million and who is the chairman of O’Shares exchange-traded funds, deigns to tell Americans who is worthy of assistance and who is not. O’Leary in an article with CNBC explained—

That’s why unemployment benefits should be at the center of the next stimulus package, Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Shares ETFs and investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” tells CNBC Make It.

“I would like to see a $400 a week support for the next 14 months [for] anybody that’s unemployed,” O’Leary says. “If you’re unemployed because of the pandemic, we’ll support you with a few hundred dollars a week until you can find a job,” he adds.

As for an additional round of stimulus checks, O’Leary says it is not necessary. “We don’t need the $1,200 check to everybody anymore because a lot of those people have now found work again,” he says.

Taylor Locke, CNBC

Who are you, O’Leary, to say this?!? Just because you hoard millions of dollars, that makes you a king?

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Pandemic Relief for All: the Suffering Unemployed and those whose Salaries Cannot Bear the Additional Expenses of a Public Health Crisis

There are many people suffering with the financial fallout caused by the pandemic: the unemployed who have lost their cash flow completely and then those who have their jobs, but the pre-pandemic salaries cannot keep up with the expenses.

So, I strenuously disagree with multimillionaire O’Leary. The people who have lost their cash flow through no fault of their own need the full $600 on top of unemployment. In addition, people need assistance to deal with the unexpected pandemic expenses—the $1,200 stimulus check, which should not be sporadic but monthly during the pandemic and to relieve the financial burden afterward. (One could argue that it should be more than $1,200.)

Conclusion

I am disgusted that I am seeing the situation that millionaires have the nerve to say who deserves assistance. We all live in the country and the proper place for policy and the policy must serve all of the population, not just the rich, powerful, and well-connected. Enough! Readers, please call or write your respective Representatives and Senators, even write the Congressional committees, to let your opinion be registered: Pandemic relief for all.

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending December 29, 2018; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending January 3, 2019

Of Note—

(1) Jerome Powell and unemployment. I have been consistently displeased with the millionaire-centered monetary policy of the Federal Reserve Board. Jerome Powell, a multimillionaire who does not need to have a job, cavalierly discusses this point. For those that have to work, or depend on others working to bring in money to the household, his views are, at best, disturbing and immoral.

Jerome Powell made a comment at the 2019 American Economic Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, at the session titled “Federal Reserve Chairs: Joint Interview” (Credit to a Twitter post written by Matthew Boes, Bloomberg):

We need the concept of a natural rate of unemployment … we need to have some sense of whether unemployment is high, low or just right.

Comment: Powell’s net worth is approximately $112 million. Also, the Board Chairman’s view is not surprising. Previously, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members laughed at the unemployed.

This is what Coretta Scott King has to say on unemployment (a quote in David P. Stein’s article) in Stein’s tweet:

It is time we put a stop to this antisocial and antihuman strategy. The unemployed are not pawns to be sacrificed in some economic chess game. – Coretta Scott King, Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, 1975.

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending December 29, 2018, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Supervision and Regulation	National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) — interagency statement on financial institutions issuing loans when the NFIP is unavailable. -Announced, December 28, 2018

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for January 3, 2019, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of January 2, 2019):  $4,106,185 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending December 15, 2018; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending December 20, 2018

Of Note—

The Fed Seeks to Increase Unemployment to Thwart Inflation.

Comment: For whose benefit? The vulnerable or the rich? What bothers me considerably about the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) monetary policy is the agency’s exclusive focus on the rich, at the clear expense of the rest of the country. This is the result of the FOMC and the Federal Reserve Board being the reserve of the wealthy and those that promote this exclusive focus.

Bloomberg op-ed by Narayana Kocherlakota.

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending December 15, 2018, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Forms	Forms — initial Board review to implement the New Hire Information Collection (FR-27). -Proposed, December 11, 2018
Enforcement	Farmers State Bank, Pine Bluffs, Wyoming — issuance of notices of intent to prohibit Frank Smith and Mark Kiolbasa, institution-affiliated parties of Farmers State Bank, from the banking industry. -Approved, December 11, 2018

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for December 20, 2018, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of December 19, 2018):  $4,132,011 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending June 30, 2018; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending July 5, 2018

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Of Note–

(1) So-called full employment in the United States of America provides absolutely nothing for most people. This blog has begun to explore the negative effect of millionaire economists driving economic policy (for the rich). The Washington Post had an article about the feeling by many workers that the economy is not working for them.

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The Federal Reserve proclaims “full employment” when the U-3 employment measure excludes those not receiving unemployment insurance. People working in precarious work worry each day whether their staffing agency will email them to say that their contract is ended. One lives day to day in precarious jobs; no long-term planning is possible.

Full report: The 2018 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Employment Outlook.

 

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending June 30, 2018, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Banks, State Member	Public Welfare Investments — (1) determination that New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program) investments are designed primarily to promote the public welfare within the meaning of section 9(23) of the Federal Reserve Act; and (2) request by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico to make NMTC Program investments. -Approved, June 28, 2018
Forms	Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Regulation B (Equal Credit Opportunity Act) (FR B). -Approved, June 27, 2018 Forms — final Board review to extend with revision the Banking Organization Systemic Risk Report (FR Y-15). -Approved, June 27, 2018 Forms — initial Board review to extend without revision the Interagency Guidance on Managing Compliance and Reputation Risks for Reverse Mortgage Products (FR 4029). -Proposed, June 27, 2018
Personnel	Division of Monetary Affairs — appointment of Min Wei as associate director and Eric Engstrom as deputy associate director, and title change for Laura Lipscomb to assistant director. -Announced, June 26, 2018
Regulations and Policies	Resolution Plan Guidance — publication for comment of proposed joint guidance for eight large, complex U.S. banking organizations regarding their future resolution-plan submissions. -Approved, June 28, 2018
Reserve Bank Services	Fedwire Funds — publication for comment of a proposal to adopt a new message format for the Fedwire Funds Service. -Approved, June 27, 2018
Supervision and Regulation	Resolution Plans — joint determination with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to move the next resolution-plan filing date for 14 domestic large banking organizations to December 31, 2019. -Approved, June 15, 2018 (A/C) Stress Tests and Capital Plan Reviews — 2018 results. -Approved, June 20, 2018 (A/C)
Enforcement	East Cambridge Savings Bank, Cambridge, Massachusetts — issuance of a consent order of prohibition against Vasken Papazian, a former institution-affiliated party of East Cambridge Savings Bank. -Announced, June 26, 2018

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for July 5, 2018, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of July 5, 2018):  $4,337,277 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

 

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending February 24, 2018; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending March 1, 2018; Two Of Note Items

Of Note–

(1) February 2018 Monetary Policy Hearing.

Monetary Policy Report, February 2018

The Monetary Policy Report (MPR) hearings will be held on February 28, 2018, and March 1, 2018. It will be the first for the new Chairman of the Board, Jerome Powell.

U.S. House of Representatives	U.S. Senate
February 27 28, 2018, 10:00 a.m., House Financial Services Committee	March 1, 2018, 10:00 a.m., Senate Banking Committee
Press release: https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402987 Chairman Jeb Hensarling announced a date change to the meeting to Feb. 27, 2018.

Report | Chairman Jerome Powell’s MPR testimony

(2) The Federal Reserve and African American Unemployment.

Rep. Al Green Questions Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on African American Unemployment

For further discussion, see the following

• Related blog post and
• New blog page–The Federal Reserve Board and African American Unemployment.

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending February 24, 2018, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Bank Holding Companies	First Financial Bancorp, Cincinnati, Ohio — (1) for First Financial Bancorp to merge with MainSource Financial Group, Inc., Greensburg, Indiana, and thereby acquire MainSource Bank; (2) for First Financial Bank, Cincinnati, to merge with MainSource Bank and thereby establish branches; and (3) election by First Financial Bancorp to become a financial holding company. -Approved, February 20, 2018
Bank Mergers	IBERIABANK, Lafayette, Louisiana — to merge with Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust Company, Coral Gables, Florida, and thereby establish branches. -Approved, February 20, 2018
Personnel	Office of Board Members — appointment of Antulio Bomfim as special adviser to the Chairman. -Announced, February 21, 2018
Supervision and Regulation, Board Operations	Supervisory Appeals and Ombudsman Policy — publication for comment of (1) proposed amendments to the Board’s guidelines governing appeals of material supervisory determinations and (2) a revised policy statement governing the role of the Board’s Ombudsman. -Approved, February 9, 2018 (A/C)

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data on factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for March 1, 2018, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of February 28, 2018):  $4,440,074 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

Futility of “Colorblindness”: Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) Discusses Black Unemployment in the United States with Chairman Jerome Powell; The Fed & Black Employee Discrimination: Artis v. [Greenspan Bernanke] Yellen

Rep. Al Green and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell on Black Unemployment

Mr. Chairman, that which we will tolerate [high black unemployment], we will not change.

-Rep. Al Green (February 27, 2018)

While watching the House Financial Services Committee hearings for the February 2018 Monetary Policy Report (MPR), I became interested in one of the question-and-answer exchanges–between Representative Al Green (D-Texas) and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome Powell.

In past MPR hearings, Rep. Green has asked questions about high black unemployment, roughly twice that of white people on a fairly consistent basis. The chart to which Rep. Green referred is in the MPR, page 7.

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Author’s note:   In addition, the Board published a working paper on observing racial gaps in the labor market in July 2017.

Furthermore, in previous reports this issue was discussed in a “box” in the MPR. In February 2018, the issue of black unemployment was mentioned in a paragraph of the main text .]

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This time, Rep. Green was far more direct in questioning this particular MPR chart, requesting for research about why the result of high black unemployment was so high and for Congress to remedy the situation. Specifically, Rep. Green will send a letter to Chairman Powell that will request the following information from the Federal Reserve:

• The effect of covert and overt discrimination on black unemployment (two times that of whites).
• Identify the primary factors that limit African American’s access to employment opportunities in sectors protected from cyclical downturns in the economy.
• If allowed (by legislation), would testing provide empirical data of discrimination in lending.

The Federal Reserve’s Mistreatment of Its Own Black Employees: Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen

There is a side story, as the readers of this blog may recognize: the Federal Reserve Board has had issues with its own black employees: specifically, as described through the court case which was titled Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen. See also Robert D. Auerbach (2008), Deception and Abuse at the Fed:  Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan’s Bank, chapter 8.

Sheila Clark’s letter to the EEOC (printed in the Auerbach book, page 123).

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending January 20, 2018; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending January 25, 2018; Four Of Note Items

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Of Note– 

(1) Website information disarray. The Board has a website with a lot of information on it, but woe be to the person trying to find information on it. The website is logically disorganized and the website is designed like a maze.

Comment:  This is simply unacceptable for an agency that says it is trying to be transparent.

For example, I tried in vain to find the reports listed on the H.2 Release (below) and was unable to see them on the website. The H.2 should have links to relevant materials.

(2) The shutdown flub (as designed). U.S. Senator Charles Schumer‘s (D-N.Y.), failed strategy is the effect of big-dollar donors. People who cannot donate a lot of money are ignored, a result that emphasizes oligarchy.

 

paris_tuileries_garden_facepalm_statue

 

(3) Economists’ bizarre expectations: Janet Yellen, the FOMC, NAIRU, and high unemployment. To the dissatisfaction to people who are underemployed or unemployed, the Board, through its projections, favors higher unemployment (fearing inflation)! See the column by Matthew C. Klein in the Financial Times (paywall).

Something to consider when Board economists proclaim the Board’s “dual mandate,” maximum employment and stable interest rates. The people of the United States would expect that there would be enough available jobs for all who want them. That is, unemployment as close to zero percent as possible.

(4) Jerome Powell, attorney and financier, to lead the Board. The Senate confirmed the Board’s new Chair, Jerome Powell. Janet Yellen’s term as Board Chair ends on February 3, 2018.

Interesting fact: Powell graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School, Rockville, Maryland.

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending January 20, 2018, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Forms	Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Disclosure Requirements Associated with the Guidance on Response Programs for Unauthorized Access to Customer Information (FR 4100). -Approved, January 17, 2018 Forms — initial Board review to extend with revision the Margin Credit Reports related to extensions of credit secured by margin stock (FR G-1, FR G-2, FR G-3, FR G-4, FR T-4, and FR U-1). -Proposed, January 17, 2018 Forms — initial Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping Requirements Associated with Limitations on Interbank Liabilities (Regulation F). -Proposed, January 17, 2018 Forms — final Board review to extend with revision the Financial Statements of U.S. Nonbank Subsidiaries of U.S. Holding Companies (FR Y-11), Abbreviated Financial Statements of U.S. Nonbank Subsidiaries of U.S. Holding Companies (FR Y-11S), Financial Statements of Foreign Subsidiaries of U.S. Banking Organizations (FR 2314), and Abbreviated Financial Statements of Foreign Subsidiaries of U.S. Banking Organizations (FR 2314S). -Approved, January 18, 2018 Forms — final Board review to revise without extension the Structure Reporting Requirements for Domestic and Foreign Banking Organizations (FR Y-6, FR Y-7,  FR Y-10, and FR Y-10E). -Approved, January 18, 2018 Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping Requirements Associated with the Real Estate Lending Standards Regulation for State Member Banks (Reg H-5). -Approved, January 17, 2018
Personnel	Division of Supervision and Regulation — appointment of Karen Caplan, Keith Coughlin, and Vaishali Sack as assistant directors. -Approved, January 12, 2018 (A/C)
Regulations and Policies	Reports to Congress — (1) interagency report to Congress on capital and accounting differences among the federal banking agencies as of September 30, 2017, and (2) report to Congress regarding the Board’s implementation of enhanced prudential standards under section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act. -Approved, December 26, 2017 (A/C)
Enforcement	Heartland Bank, Little Rock, Arkansas — termination of a prompt-corrective-action directive issued on August 15, 2017. -Approved, January 16, 2018

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for January 25, 2018, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of January 24, 2018):  $4,488,523 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

 

(See the release for further information.)

 

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending October 28, 2017; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending November 2, 2017; Two Of Note Items

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Of Note—

(1) The STEM-Shortage fib. For all the promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees (and castigation of liberal arts degrees as useless), it turns out that there are not sufficient jobs in many STEM areas, especially engineering. (Links are to articles in the New York Times.)

The reason for this terrible state of affairs–outsourcing of jobs to non-U.S.-based-or-trained labor. Similar to the glut of people with law degrees (many U.S.-based legal jobs have been outsourced to attorneys outside of the United States), there is an excess of U.S. educated engineers.

Comment:  For legal jobs, the blog author is aware of an online legal information provider to bar association members offering court-opinion-summary jobs for $3.00 per completed summary, requiring a Juris Doctor degree. Given that it takes about 4 hours to prepare such summary (plus headline), a U.S.-trained lawyer is asked to work for 75 cents per hour (and 40 summaries are expected per week (!)).

[A lot of the word processing of the cases is being done in India. The exchange rate is (as of the date of this post) 1 USD to 64.51 INR.]

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(2) The promotion of Jerome Powell. Board Governor Jerome Powell is President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve Board.

Comment:  Notably–

(a) Powell is not a Ph.D economist. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a law degree.

(b) His net worth–an eye-opening $55 million.

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending October 28, 2017, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Advisory Councils	Community Advisory Council — announcement of five new members of the council. -Announced, October 26, 2017
Bank Holding Companies	Reliable Community Bancshares, Inc., Perryville, Missouri, and MAB Acquisition Corp. — to acquire Mid America Banking Corporation, Rolla, and thereby indirectly acquire Mid America Bank & Trust Company, Dixon. -Approved, October 25, 2017
Forms	Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Notifications Related to Community Development and Public Welfare Investments of State Member Banks (FR H-6). -Approved, October 28, 2017
Personnel	Division of Supervision and Regulation — appointment of Richard Nathan Ragan as senior associate director. -Approved, October 18, 2017 (A/C)
Enforcement	Mid America Bank & Trust Company, Dixon, Missouri — issuance of a consent order against Mid America Bank & Trust Company for deceptive practices in violation of section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act related to balance-transfer credit cards issued to consumers by Mid America through third parties. -Approved, October 23, 2017

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for November 2, 2017, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of November 1, 2017):  $4,502,772 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending August 26, 2017; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending August 31, 2017; Two ‘Of Note’ Items

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Of Note–

(1) Computers do not have brains; the machines do as they are told (by human beings—programmers—with all the positives and negative biases that come with human beings). As a result, people should not get carried away with “artificial intelligence” or over rely on computer results without investigating how the computer achieved its result (that is, the program).

See an interesting post at the Naked Capitalism blog:  Cathy O’Neil, “Algorithms are Opinions Embeded in Code.”

(2) Capitalism depends upon making some people poor in order to enrich others. People seek to defend this by blaming the poor for their suffering (defending the system that the critiquing person benefits from while justifying the precarious position in which the poor and other vulnerable people are placed in.) [Note:  The economists of the Federal Open Market Committee have done the same, according to 2012 FOMC transcripts.]

See an another interesting post at the Naked Capitalism blog:  Yves Smith, “If You’ve Never lived in Poverty, don’t tell People What They should do.”

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The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending August 26, 2017, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Personnel	Division of Supervision and Regulation — appointment of Jennifer Burns as deputy director. -Approved, August 23, 2017
Regulations and Policies	Treasury Repo Rates — publication for comment on the proposed production and publication of three interest rates by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, based on data for overnight repurchase agreement transactions on Treasury securities. -Approved, August 21, 2017
Enforcement	The Bank & Trust, S.S.B., Del Rio, Texas — issuance of a consent cease-and-desist order. -Announced, August 22, 2017 Santander Holdings, USA, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts — written agreement dated September 15, 2014, terminated August 17, 2017. -Announced, August 24, 2017

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for August 31, 2017, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of August 30, 2017):  $4,498,372 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

 

Federal Reserve Board: H.2 Release for Week Ending February 18, 2017; H.4.1 Release (Balance Sheet) for Week Ending February 23, 2017; Recap of MPR Hearings

The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending February 18, 2017, is below.

H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received

Category	Action Taken
Testimony and Statements	Monetary Policy — statement by Chair Yellen before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on February 14 and the House Committee on Financial Services on February 15, 2017, on the semiannual monetary policy report to the Congress. -Published, February 14, 2017
Monetary and Financial Policy	Term Deposit Facility — floating-rate offering of seven-day term deposits with an early withdrawal feature, same-day settlement, and a maximum tender amount of $1 billion on February 23, 2017. -Announced, February 16, 2017
Savings and Loan Holding Companies	John Deere Financial, f.s.b., Madison, Wisconsin — request for an exception from anti-tying restrictions of the Home Owners’ Loan Act in order to continue to offer promotional financing arrangements through its private-label credit cards to customers who purchase products manufactured by its affiliates. -Granted, February 14, 2017
Enforcement	West Tennessee Bancshares, Bartlett, Tennessee, and Bank of Bartlett — written agreement dated October 22, 2009, terminated February 13, 2017. -Announced, February 16, 2017

House of Representatives–

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Related: Federal Open Market Committee members (in 2011 transcripts) laughed at the struggles of the unemployed. (Note: Janet Yellen, then President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, was present at the meeting.)

The handless facepalm

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Monetary Policy Report, February 2017

The Monetary Policy Report hearings for February 2017 were held on February 14 and 15.

U.S. House of Representatives	U.S. Senate
February 15, 2017, 10:00 a.m., House Financial Services Committee	February 14, 2017, 10:00 a.m., Senate Banking Committee
Press release: http://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=401494	Press release: http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=BC31D43D-6173-4FE5-860E-090DACC47788
Testimony transcript (for both House and Senate): https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/yellen20170214a.htm

Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)

The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for February 23, 2017, is below.

[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]

H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances

Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of February 22, 2017):  $4,514,625 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).

(See the release for further information.)

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