Goldstein
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Un breve artículo en Slate explicando cómo funciona esto de las inyecciones de liquidez.
http://www.slate.com/id/2172342/fr/rss/
http://www.slate.com/id/2172342/fr/rss/
The U.S. Federal Reserve pumped $62 billion into the banking system over two days last week as credit antiestéticars spread and stock markets sank—a situation that's been likened to financial Armageddon. On Thursday, the Fed injected another $17 billion. How exactly do you put cash into the market?
With huge short-term loans. The Fed auctions off these loans to the banks willing to pay the highest interest rates. The borrowers use their government bonds as collateral, buying them back from the government after a period of at most two weeks. In the meantime, the banks have more cash to lend—to each other, to corporations, to anyone who's buying a house or car.
To initiate one of these temporary loans, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which handles the central bank's transactions, posts a message on its electronic auction system. Within 15 minutes, the 21 so-called "primary dealers," the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, can submit interest rates they're willing to pay to borrow; the highest ones are accepted. On Thursday, banks paid 4.8 percent or more in interest. The borrowers don't actually receive the cash until a designated commercial bank—either the Bank of New York or Chase—executes the electronic transaction.
These infusions help to keep a tight leash on something called either the "overnight lending rate" or the "fed funds rate." Banks are required by law to maintain 10 percent of all their deposits in cash. To make sure they have the right amount at the end of each day, they borrow from one another using the overnight lending rate.
If too many banks start borrowing money to cover their cash reserves, then the lenders can start charging higher interest rates. And if the rates get too high, banks will have to cover their reserves by lending less money to businesses and individuals. That slows down the whole economy. But the Fed can take action to keep the overnight lending rate steady. By injecting cash, the government makes it so that banks don't need to borrow as much from one another—which causes the rate to drop. (The Fed can also take money out of the market to make the rate go up.)
The recent infusions were especially big, but the government pours money into the market all the time. Doesn't all this extra cash lead to inflation? Only if the Fed starts handing out more help than the banks need—if the supply of money exceeds the demand from banks. If banks were so flush with cash that they could use the government's loan for something else besides covering their reserves—like buying new technology or lending the money to their customers—then the cash would enter the general market, wind up in somebody's wallet, and push up the price of goods.