3 October 2023
The Fed, even after reducing its balance sheet from $8.97 trillion, still hoards over $8 trillion, highlighting a troubling persistence in shaky financial strategies. While engaging in loss-concealing tactics via the $108 billion Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) program, it merely offers a smokescreen for the banks and the blunders from a decade of speculative encouragement and QE doubling since 2020. With surging small business bankruptcies in 2023 and the inability to mitigate the tangible losses from them and commercial real estate, the Fed’s strategies teeter on a precarious edge, echoing larger, looming financial distress.