Since that time, the Fed has kept up appearances by continuing to provide POMO and TOMO (Permanent (P) and Temporary (T) Open Market Operations) to the tune of anywhere from $30 billion to $60 billion per day. That's right, PER DAY, and it's often been more. That's how big the overnight lending business is. Huge. The REPO market is also what triggered the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, when first, Bear Stearns, then, Lehman Brothers, were forced into bankruptcy by being unable to borrow from the overnight REPO market.
The problem with both Bear and Lehman was that their collateral consisted of highly toxic, dodgy MBS, or as is commonly referenced, sub-prime packaged loans. Lenders on the other side of the ledger were hesitant to lend to either, fearing that not only was the collateral of a suspect nature, the firms - Bear and Lehman - were buying more of them as an integral part of their business structure.
In 2008, this all blew up, the Fed stepped in, flooded the world with liquidity (buying up all the toxic MBS it could) and the collapse of the global financial system was averted.
Note that the collapse was averted, not solved, not cured, not by a long shot. The Fed's been busy keeping markets in some degree of stability ever since.
On Wednesday (today), the Fed's FOMC will likely announce no change n the federal funds rate, but that, besides being a foregone conclusion, isn't the real story. For that, in the interest of time and space, Money Daily bids adieu to this commentary, and offers a couple of links that may or may not render the REPO markets as something understandable to the reader.
First, this excellent video with Paddy Hirsh explaining just how the REPO market operates (about 8 minutes of time well spent):
Then, just to make matters a little more interesting, this ZeroHedge story featuring Zoltan Pozsar claiming that the REPO market is about to explode again, and that a stock market crash is imminent.
Take that ZeroHedge article with as many grains of salt or sugar your risk appetite will absorb, but bear in mind that Mr. Pozsar was, as ZeroHedge purports,...
instrumental during his tenure at both the US Treasury and the New York Fed in laying the foundations of the modern repo market, orchestrating the response to the global financial crisis and the ensuing policy debate (as virtually nobody at the Fed knew more about repo at the time than Pozsar), serving as point person on market developments for Fed, Treasury and White House officials throughout the crisis (yes, Kashkari was just the figurehead); playing the key role in building the TALF to backstop the ABS market, and advising the former head of the Fed's Markets Desk, Brian Sack, on just how the NY Fed should implement its various market interventions without disrupting and breaking the most important market of all: the multi-trillion repo market.
The Fed's FOMC policy meeting concludes at 2:00 pm ET on Wednesday, with the release of their statement followed by a press conference headed by Fed Chairman, Jay Powell, who will try his best to avoid answering direct questions dealing with the REPO market, for obvious reasons.
Party on!
At the Close, Tuesday, October 10, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 27,881.72, -27.88 (-0.10%)
NASDAQ: 8,616.18, -5.64 (-0.07%)
S&P 500: 3,132.52, -3.44 (-0.11%)
NYSE Composite: 13,545.31, -9.77 (-0.07%)
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