That, ladies and gentleman, is your Federal Reserve. Never mind that they’re merely removing interest income from the private sector where it goes to die in a black hole, ie, “funding” nothing (via Bloomberg):
“The Federal Reserve will pay $76.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury as part of an annual dividend it remits after covering its own expenses from interest on its ballooning bond portfolio and other gains.
Total assets on the Fed’s balance sheet stood at a near- record $2.92 trillion on Jan. 4. The central bank expanded its portfolio by purchasing $2.3 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt, mortgage-backed securities and housing agency debt to push down longer-term interest rates once its benchmark lending rate hit zero in December 2008. The Fed expanded its portfolio in two rounds of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing.
Because the Fed funds itself by emitting currency on which it pays no interest, or by paying 0.25 percent on the deposits banks keep at the Fed, the central bank enjoys positive interest income. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 1.97 percent at 11:27 a.m. today in New York.”
Source: Bloomberg
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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