NuseReal
Miscellaneous
EU reaches deal on more ambitious renewable energy targets for 2030 — ground.news: 58 sources — 30 March 2023 (LINK)
— By 2030, 42.5 percent of energy consumption should come from renewable energies. However, the role of nuclear energy is causing criticism.
Gwyneth Paltrow wins ski collision case: Paltrow was also victorious in her counterclaim against the man who sued her: jury in the civil trial deliberated for a little over two hours — cnn — 31 March 2023 (LINK)
The Fed Loses Money For The First Time In 107 Years — seekingalpha.com — 31 March 2023 (LINK)
— The immediate reason for the losses is because Fed has an asset/liability mismatch on their balance sheet. The Fed's assets are primarily long-term fixed rate US Treasury Bonds and Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS,) while their liabilities are short term and variable rate. As the Fed has been tightening over the past year to combat inflation, the interest rate they earn on their fixed rate holdings in their System Open Market Account (SOMA) has remained constant, while the cost of their liabilities has increased with each Fed tightening move to raise the Fed Funds rate.
At year end the Fed had $8.4 trillion in fixed rate assets earning 1.85%. On the liability side the Fed had $5.6 trillion of reverse repurchase agreements and depository bank reserves, that they must pay interest on. The break-even rate for the Fed was when they had to pay 2.75% on their liabilities.
The irony of the Fed's situation is that they have the same exact asset/liability mismatch on their balance sheet that is roiling the banking industry causing the current banking crisis. The Fed is trying to douse the flames of a burning banking industry while their own house is on fire.
To put the Fed's unrealized loss position in perspective, their unrealized loss of $1.1 trillion at year end is nearly double that of the entire US banking system!
In a commercial bank, this would create insolvency, but the Fed operates by a different set of rules. Under Fed accounting, the losses have no impact on its capital. Instead, the losses are carried in a newly created deferred asset account called "Earnings Remittances Due to the Treasury," which is recorded as a negative liability on the balance sheet. Losses will continue to increase the deferred asset account until the Fed turns profitable again and those earnings will then be used to reduce the deferred asset. Such treatment causes the Fed to create new reserves to cover the losses.
