Regulation works. It provides safety, stability, and security as opposed to panic, bankruptcy and severe recession which is the scenario that Wall Street's profiteers seem to prefer. Now check this out from the NY Fed:
"While leveraged lending collapsed in 2008 from a peak of $680 billion in 2007, it has rebounded very quickly, and is now at record levels of volume, projected to be larger than $1 trillion in 2013." (NY Fed)
How's that for progress, eh? So, Bernanke's reflation efforts have effectively restored the same shabby, poorly designed system to its former glory, putting all of us at risk again. Here's more:
"One area of concern, however, is the significant increase in the fraction of covenant lite loans, which have increased dramatically from 0 percent in 2010 to 60 percent in 2013. This deterioration in loan underwriting has come hand-in-hand with an increased presence of retail investors in the leveraged loan market, through both CLOs and prime funds, as relatively sophisticated investors, like banks and hedge funds, are exiting the asset class." (New York Fed)
Great. So now we are seeing the same problems that emerged in 2004 and 2005 with subprime mortgages, that is, there's so much liquidity in the system -- thanks to the Fed's zero rates and QE -- that investors are dabbling in all-types of risky garbage that you wouldn't normally touch with a 10-foot dungpole. Check this out from Testosterone Pit:
"Shadow banking loans are estimated to have reached $15 trillion in the US. And among them is a particularly hot category: lending to highly leveraged companies with junk credit ratings. ... the NY Fed found that these loans are increasingly issued in a loosey-goosey manner, with low underwriting standards. And issuance has soared...
"Layered into these crappy and risky loans are the crappiest and riskiest of all loans, namely 'covenant-lite' loans. Their covenants are so watered down and so full of holes that investors have few if any protections in case of default. If the Fed ever allows reality to set, and these companies stumble under their load of debt or can't refinance it at ridiculously low rates, investors can kiss their money goodbye.
"These desperate small investors...have unknowingly made a quantum leap in risk -- allowing the smart money, which hears the hot air hissing from the credit bubble, to bail out. This must be one of the proudest moments in Chairman Bernanke's glorious tenure." ("Fed: Hedge Funds, Banks Sell Crappiest Debt To Small Investors (Before Credit Bubble Blows Up)." Testosterone Pit)
Nice, eh? So the big boys are planning to vamoose before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. Meanwhile, Mom and Pop are about to get reamed for the umpteenth time when the Fed "tapers" and these covenant lite IEDs blow up in their face, taking another sizable chunk out of their retirement savings. Way to go, Bernanke. Here's more from the NY Fed report:
"Shadow credit transformation increased from only 5 percent of total credit transformation in 1945 to a peak amount of 60 percent in 2008 before declining to 55 percent in 2011."
So now the shadow players are generating more than half of all the nation's credit via their dodgy, unregulated operations. Why? So a handful of ravenous banks can make bigger profits.
According to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) "credit intermediation that takes place in an environment where prudential regulatory standards and supervisory oversight are either not applied or are applied to a materially lesser or different degree than is the case for regular banks engaged in similar activities." (FSB, 2011).
Read that over again. What they're saying is that it's a completely ridiculous, insane system. We've given the banks this outrageous privilege of creating private money out of thin air, (credit) and they spit in our face. They won't even follow a few simple rules that would make the process safer for everyone. Keep in mind, that Dodd Frank does nothing to remedy the problems in repo.
One last thing (from the NY Fed):
"Intermediaries create liquidity in the shadow banking system by levering up the collateral value of their assets. However, the liquidity creation comes at the cost of financial fragility as fluctuations in uncertainty cause a flight to quality from shadow liabilities to safe assets. The collapse of shadow banking liquidity has real effects via the pricing of credit and generates prolonged slumps after adverse shocks."
Repeat: "liquidity creation comes at the cost of financial fragility as fluctuations in uncertainty cause a flight to quality from shadow liabilities to safe assets."
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