US Treasury’s responses to questions of the 1st report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization

US Treasury’s responses to questions of the 1st report of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization
PDF file
The response is dated 30 December 2008.

It’s informative. A summary of actions happening in US’s Economic Stabilization.
Refer to the link for details.

Critical objectives:
1. Stabilize financial markets and reduce systemic risk
2. Support the housing market by avoiding preventable foreclosures and supporting
mortgage finance
3. Protect taxpayers.

Legal Act:
Emergency Economic stabilization Act (EESA)

Parties involved:
Treasury, Federal Reserve,FDIC, OTS, and the OCC; Finance Ministries and major Central Banks around the world

(I put in organizations responsible for the actions.)

Actions to Stabilize Financial Markets
1. Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) (by Fed)
2. Term Auction Facility (TAF) (by Fed)
3. Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) (by Fed)
4. Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) (by Fed)
5. Money Market Investor Funding Facility (MMIFF) (by Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY))
6. Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Mutual Funds (by Treasury)
7. Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) (by Fed)
8. Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (by Fed)
9. Swap Lines with Foreign Central Banks (by Fed)

Actions to Strengthen U.S. Financial Institutions
1. Temporary Increase in Deposit Insurance (by FDIC)
2. Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) - Debt Guarantee Program (DGP) and Transaction Account Guarantee Program ; (both by FDIC)
3. Capital Purchase Program (CPP) (by Treasury)
4. Systemically Significant Failing Institutions Program (SSFI) (by Treasury)

Initiatives to Support the U.S. Housing Market
1. FHASecure (by HUD)
2. HOPE NOW (by HOPE NOW Alliance)
3. Stabilizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (by Treasury)
4. Hope for Homeowners (by HUD)
5. Streamlined Loan Modification Program (Treasury joined
with the FHFA, the GSEs, and HOPE NOW)
6. Subprime Fast-Track Loan Modification Framework (Treasury worked with the
American Securitization Forum)

(Sigh)..very much like Great Depression’s time "Alphabet Agencies" organizations under New Deal. The document also mention on progress of Economic Stabilization. This is interesting read too.

Will these actions be able to stabilize US economy ?

EPFR Global – global fund flows and allocations data

Where does the money flow to ? Sometimes I ponder about this question.

EPFR Global provides fund flows and asset allocation data.
EPFR Global website
However, (sigh) this data is not free.

We can still find some useful data from the website’s headlines.
For examples,
look at "Weekly Fund Flows" headlines:
… US and China equity funds favored while pressure on bond funds ease.
…. Some signs of risk appetite as flows into EM equity funds hit a 20-week high.
… Europe Equity and Money Market Funds extend wining runs in early December.

We can also look at "EPFR Daily – fund flow alerts" news flash.
This will be a more updated (daily) news on fund flows.
Anybody is subscribing to the service ?

Note: If you like to invest in different countries, you may wish to take a look on my other posts on countries such as United States of America, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

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Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative – US business leaders (1)

I came across this book "In their time – the greatest business leaders of the 20th century".
(in Chinese version, its title is 英雄年代)
It is a great book on US business leaders, US business history in 1900s to 1990s.

From this book, I get to know this Harvard Business School – Leadership Initiative.
It is a great repository for US business leadership/history.
Let’s explore.

Timeline
This "timeline" feature is really great.
It shows US’s 6 contextual factors (demographics, technology, social mores, government intervention, labour and global events) in every period of 10 years, starting from 1900s, to 1990s; and some of the great entrepreneurs, managers and leaders.
The "interesting facts" are fun.

Another feature is "leader". It shows American business leaders of 20th century,
can be filtered using last name, industry, company, era
Leaders

Are there databases like this one for business leaders in Europe, Asia etc. ?

There is also another book by the same authors:
Paths to Power : How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership
I haven't read this book yet.

Economist: School of thoughts – Austrian School

A forum friend has mentioned a website which I think is a great repository of Austrian School of Economics’ ideas and literatures.

Ludwig von Mises Institute
website

Some of the literatures (in PDF files) can give a glimpse of who are the Austrian School economists and their ideas.

Recommended these few PDF files for a start:
15 great Austrian Economists
PDF file
Method, Process and Austrian Economics
PDF file
New Directions in Austrian Economics
PDF file

Its daily articles are also good read, giving insights on other ways looking at same things.