“In the old days … the Fed controlled the federal funds rate with open market operations,” Antulio Bomfim, a former Fed economist now with Macroeconomic Advisors LLC in Washington told Reuters. “Now, at least in this period when reserves are over-abundant, the way the Fed hopes to raise the federal funds rate will be primarily by raising the interest rate it pays on reserves.”

While the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plan to buy more than $1 trillion in debt has helped unfreeze the credit markets, it has also effectively capped U.S. Treasury yields and undermined the dollar.

Fed will Buy up to $1 Trillion in Securities; Source: IBM Looking to Buy Sun; Record Hedge Funds Collapses in 2008; Stale Earnings at General Mills; World Bank: China Stabilizing; AIG Exec Asks for Bonus Money Back

Total Fed Credit, otherwise known as Federal Reserve Credit, ballooned by a huge $76.9 billion last week, taking the Fed’s total “help” to the scumbag banks to a nice, cool $1.9 trillion, of which a whopping $56 billion gob of the money created last week by the Fed was used by the Fed itself to buy Treasury securities for itself! Hahaha! What a scam!

Fed saves us from ourselves… details of the historic FOMC decision… Dan Amoss and James Turk on the implications of 0% interest rates… Dollar gets slammed… how long until the greenback carry trade? Most companies planning on dismal pay raises this year… how you can stay on top in 2009… So what if Madoff fleeced us for $50 billion? Pennies compared with this long-running scheme… Plus, a new survey the Big Three definitely won’t want to read

Currencies trade in a tight range…  Another new plan to help homeowners…  RBNZ and Riksbank slash interest rates! The Governorator speaks!… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!