by peripato » Thu 03 Nov 2011, 20:07:50
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'O')h - here goes the POMO conspiracy theory again.
Let's analyse this ...
First of all ... When stocks do well, bonds don't do well. And vice-versa. Hope there's no disagreement on that.
Second ... POMO operations mostly involve the Fed purchasing Treasuries (sometimes Agencies). When you've got an extra (and large) buyer of something, that's going to support the price. Hope there's no disagreement on that, either.
It follows from the Second -- if the Fed purchases some Treasuries on some given date ... Which leads to the First -- that is, the Fed is supporting the bond market by purchasing Treasuries ... then the stock market should go down, not up. Because, after all, when bonds do well (as they should on POMO days), stocks don't.
The conspiracy theory usually then goes that the Fed is buying Treasuries from banks or other institutions ("open market" operations) so that frees up cash these institutions can invest in the stock market. But if that were the case, we'd see both the bond *and* stock markets go up on POMO days. But, as anyone who follows the market knows, that almost never happens.
As for the dollar, anyone who follows the markets also knows that, when the bond market tanks, the dollar goes down, and vice-versa. So, the Fed's POMO operations, by buying Treasuries and supporting the bond market, should send the dollar up, not down.
Conspiracy theory debunked.
So where did you get that definition of POMO from Oily? The Ministry of Information?
It's an open secret that POMOs are the Fed's way of creating additional bank reserves to finance asset purchases and loans for its Primary Dealers, namely Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.
Now, this from an
elucidating article printed in Business Insider, hardly what you would call a radical source of economic information, last October, where the author of a study on POMO and its effects, was disturbed to find the following;
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')’ll be honest with the reader. When I ran this data I was really hoping that I would find evidence showing that the POMO’s have no impact on market direction. The conclusion is unsettling for obvious reasons. And while this might be nothing more than a case of datamining the evidence is convincing that the Federal Reserve is helping to boost equity prices without creating an equally positive change in SUSTAINABLE economic growth. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but when I’ve got the Manager of the System Open Market Account for the Federal Open Market Committee telling me that he wants to keep “prices higher than they otherwise would be” combined with this evidence it makes it very hard to believe that the Fed isn’t attempting to outdo Bernie Madoff.