You are here

Banks find it more profitable to service the Fed than to lend to the real economy

Section: Daily Dispatches

Federal Reserve Policy Is Smothering Private Lending

By Judy Shelton
The Wall Street Journal
Monday, March 8, 2021

The Federal Reserve's seeming willingness to provide inexhaustible financing of U.S. government debt is raising concerns about future inflation. Record-breaking growth in the money supply from the Fed's quantitative-easing bond purchases threatens price stability. But an even greater risk -- one that goes to the heart of economic opportunity under democratic capitalism -- is the effect of Fed decisions on private bank lending.

Banking institutions have traditionally provided the pipeline that routes loanable capital to businesses and households. Yet commercial banks are increasingly opting to reduce the share of total assets devoted to loans while expanding their holdings of Treasury debt and government-backed mortgage securities.

... Dispatch continues below ...


ADVERTISEMENT

Asante Gold Announces Kubi 3D Model
Extends Gold Mineralizing System

Company Announcement via Globe Newswire
Thursday, July 2, 2020

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Asante Gold Corp. (CSE:ASE / Frankfurt:1A9 / U.S.OTC: ASGOF) has received the results of 3D magnetic modeling completed over its Kubi mining lease in the Ashanti Gold Belt in Ghana.

The results show that the Kubi Main Zone gold resource is intimately associated with and interfingers the western sheared contact of a magnetic high feature that plunges to more than 2 kilometers in depth. Here is the 3D model video:

http://www.asantegold.com/assets/Video/SEMSpitMagSmthCore.mp4

In Ghana, Africa's largest gold producer, many big mines are located along northeast-trending regional shear systems that exceed 250 kilometers in length. Studies indicate that the hydrothermal gold mineralizing system that generated the Ashanti Gold Belt deposits was "gigantic and extended to at least 10 to 15 kilometers in depth" (Schmidt Mumm et al., 1996). The Ashanti shear zone hosts the largest single gold resource in Ghana, the 66-million-ounce Obuasi mine. This major shear zone cuts Kubi 15 kilometers southwest of Obuasi. ...

... For the remainder of the announcement:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/07/02/2056982/0/en/Asant...


The 25 largest U.S. banks currently hold 45.7% of their assets in loans and leases, according to Fed data released Friday, down from 54.1% this time last year. Meantime, their year-over-year holdings of Treasury and agency securities increased 33.5%. This reflects more-stringent borrowing standards and diminished loan demand. But it also reveals a subtle yet persistent change in how banks operate.

Banks have pulled back from making risky loans in favor of engaging more directly with the Fed -- avoiding the type of lending that spawned stricter regulatory standards after 2008 while readily accommodating the Fed's expressed satisfaction with an "ample reserves" regime. Bank lending to small businesses has remained low throughout the postcrisis years, with the largest declines in small-business lending at large banks, as shown in a 2018 report commissioned by the Small Business Administration. ...

... For the remainder of the commentary:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-policy-is-smothering-private-lending-11...

* * *

Toast to a free gold market
with great GATA-label wine

Wine carrying the label of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, cases of which were awarded to three lucky donors in GATA's recent fundraising campaign, are now available for purchase by the case from Fay J Winery LLC in Texarkana, Texas. Each case has 12 bottles and the cost is $240, which includes shipping via Federal Express.

Here's what the bottles look like:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-4-wine-bottles.jpg

Buyers can compose their case by choosing as many as four varietals from the list here:

http://www.gata.org/files/FayJWineryVarietals.jpg

GATA will receive a commission on each case of GATA-label wine sold. So if you like wine and buy it anyway, why not buy it in a way that supports our work to achieve free and transparent markets in the monetary metals?

To order a case of GATA-label wine, please e-mail Fay J Winery at bagman1236@aol.com.

* * *

Support GATA by purchasing
Stuart Englert's "Rigged"

"Rigged" is a concise explanation of government's currency market rigging policy and extensively credits GATA's work exposing it. Ten percent of sales proceeds are contributed to GATA. Buy a copy for $14.99 through Amazon --

https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Exposing-Largest-Financial-History/dp/1651...

-- or for an additional $3 and a penny buy an autographed copy from Englert himself by contacting him at srenglert@comcast.net.

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16