May 6, 2020
Since extreme measures to combat the spread of the corona virus were put into place in mid-March the Fed’s balance sheet has risen by $2.3 trillion from $4.3 trillion to $6.6 trillion. Of those purchases, $1.4 trillion has been U.S. government securities, mostly Treasury notes and bonds with a few bills and a few inflation-indexed bonds thrown in. It has purchased about $0.3 trillion of mortgages, repurchase agreements have risen by $0.2 trillion, and a bit more than $0.1 trillion in loans to money market mutual funds for liquidity. Its loans to small businesses and to state and local governments have not yet begun to climb, The Fed’s portfolio is bound to climb to $9.0 trillion or more by summer.
Stephen Slifer
NumberNomics
Charleston, SC
Hoping you all can email me to feds balance sheet reduction (QT) each time they sale Bonds? Thanks for the great website and charts,
Hi Craig,
Sorry about the tardy response. I have been out of the country on vacation for the past several weeks.
On my website there is a section under the “References” section called “Federal Reserve”. One of the parts of that tracks the Fed’s balance sheet. It shows you what that balance is today (it is declining very slowly). It also shows you the Fed’s balance sheet relative to the target. It will take it another 5 years or so to shrink to where they would like it to be. I only update this about once a month because weekly (and even monthly changes) are so small.
If you want to follow this for yourself go to the Federal Reserve Board’s website, go to the data section, and look for the H.4.1. release entitled “Factors Affecting Bank Reserves.
I hope this is helpful.
Steve Slifer