The Federal Reserve and Its Petard

Even casual readers of today's financial news know interbank lending is drying up on an international scale, and that the world financial system is getting the shakes. That's why the Fed and other major central banks announced yesterday a currency swap program to ensure dollar liquidity in Europe and elsewhere. But even as the Fed mounts up and tries to lead the charge, we should remember that it is tripping over its own ultra low interest rate policy.

The Fed's principal monetary weapon is to control the fed funds rate. That's the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. The Fed has targeted a rate of 0 % to 0.25%, and has promised to hold it there until Antarctica is covered by tropical rain forest. A bank with excess funds can't hardly make a plugged nickel when its lending rate is virtually indistinguishable from zero. And when you consider that many of the larger European banks that are now desperate for dollar funding are, by virtue of the EU sovereign debt crisis, not glowingly golden credit risks, it's no surprise that American and other banks with excess dollars are stuffing entire bulbs of garlic into their mouths any time an EU bank asks for a loan. In other words, the Fed's own zero interest rate policy is hampering interbank lending that could alleviate the very credit crunch it's now desperate to combat.

I leave it to you, dear reader, to decide what to say about the Fed and its petard.