WHAT THE FED IS DOING

(Via The Big Picture)

The Fed has been pretty active in trying to forestall an economic disaster. From the WSJ:

March 28, 2008, 11:01 am
Guide to Fed’s Alphabet Soup

Getting your OMOs confused with your TAFs, PDCFs and TSLFs?
The Federal Reserve’s alphabet soup of innovation is running over the side of its bowl with the central bank’s new programs designed to prevent economic disaster. (Or at least prevent more of a disaster than we have now.)
The FRBNY (i.e., Federal Reserve Bank of New York) has just published a handy chart outlining the eight ways a bank or investment firm can borrow from the nation’s lender of last resort. Five of them were created since last summer:

Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), announced March 11, allowing securities dealers to get Treasurys at auction for 28 days
Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), announced March 16, for securities firms to receive overnight loans
Term Auction Facility (TAF), announced December 12, for banks to get funds at auction without the discount window stigma
Single-Tranche OMO (Open Market Operation) program, announced March 7, allowing securities dealers to get 28-day funds
Term Discount Window Program (we haven’t seen the TDWP acronym yet), announced August 17, extending the length of discount-window loans to 90 days
Get the chart here. It’s a perfect size for the refrigerator door, but the page probably only has enough space for two more programs. (How much innovation could be left?) –Sudeep Reddy