Bad News For Big Banks
Gary North has a wonderful editorial addressing the current banking situation:
The subprime mortgage crisis constitutes the worst banking error in my lifetime. Nothing else comes close.
It has visibly begun to unravel. The European Central Bank on Tuesday, December 18, opened a line of credit of $500 billion to commercial banks.
The Federal Reserve System under Greenspan was the prime instigator. It forced down short-term interest rates by supplying the overnight bank-to-bank loan market with sufficient liquidity to drop the rate to 1%. This encouraged banks to make loans at low rates.
These loans were short-term loans. The borrowers then went out and bought long-term assets: bonds and mortgages. This is known as the carry trade. The pioneering central bank in the carry trade was the Bank of Japan. It lowered short-term rates from about 7% in 1990 to just above zero in 1999, where it stayed until mid-2006. But the yen is not the world’s reserve currency. The U.S. dollar is.
This may have a negative effect on home equity line of credit rates. Those considering such a loan may find it prudent to lock in a rate now, as they won’t likely fall.
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