Tuesday, June 9, 2020

The Fed is bailing out the NYC subway system

At the urging of Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Fed will add the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, that is the New York City subway system, to the list of entities that it will bail out. The Fed, via its Municipal Liquidity Facility, is going to buy $30 billion of MTA paper.
https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2020/06/now-federal-reserve-is-bailing-out-new.html

So how much money does the Municipal Liquidity Facility have?
The facility will purchase up to $500 billion of short term notes directly from U.S. states (including the District of Columbia), U.S. counties with a population of at least 500,000 residents, and U.S. cities with a population of at least 250,000 residents. 
https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/muni.htm

What is the equity of the MLF?
The MLF will provide a liquidity backstop to issuers of Eligible Notes through an SPV. The Treasury Secretary, using funds appropriated to the Exchange Stabilization Fund under section 4027 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), will make an initial equity investment of $35 billion in the SPV.

So let's think about this.  The Fed prints green paper out of thin air (dollars) but it wants something in return.  The US Treasury prints bonds and notes and trades them (indirectly through the primary dealers) to the Fed in exchange for the cash. That is what is causing the national debt to soar.  But no worries, even though it is called debt, it never has to be paid back.  (They do have to make payments on it, but they can borrow more to make up for the payments). So the ability to print bonds is really the ability to print money.

Now municipalities and the New York subways system have the same ability.  With municipalities, the type of security is different.
The immediate purpose of the MLF is to enhance the liquidity of the primary short-term municipal securities market through the purchase at issuance of Tax Anticipation Notes (TANs), Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANs), Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs), Revenue Anticipation Notes (RANs), and similar short-term notes.

So, the ability to issue TANs,TRANs,BANs, and RANs is really the ability to print money, up to a collective total of $500 billion. And if number is reached, Congress will probably authorize more.  So, free money ($30 billion) to the subway.

Everybody is happy.  But what does this do to the value of the dollar?

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