Crisis of Confidence Men
Substantially zero - that’s the amount of borrowing at the Fed’s discount window when you subtract out the $2 billion of “solidarity” borrowings from C, JPM, BAC, and WB on Wednesday. The H.4.1 statement was highly anticipated and it was telling. The stigma is either really bad or this liquidity crisis is more like a Crisis of Confidence Men. Note that “Confidence Men” are better known by the slang term - “Con Men.” Most media outlets are quoting the average daily borrowing figure of $1.2 billion - I guess because it sounds bigger and more impressive than my substantially zero figure. Some commentators have suggested that the math implies that other banks actually did borrow money earlier in the week and then repaid it before Wednesday. To do that you have to assume that C, JPM, BAC, and WB did not borrow prior to Wednesday’s publicity stunt.

RSS Feed