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Summers Says ‘Bizarre’ for U.S. to Borrow So Much in Short-Term
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the Federal Reserve’s massive bond-buying program is resulting in a “bizarre” situation in which the government’s funding structure is overly focused on the short-term. Under its quantitative easing program, the Fed purchases longer-term Treasuries and the money it creates to buy them ends up in the accounts that banks hold with the central bank, in the form of overnight reserves. These reserves earn a rate of interest that’s linked to changeable overnight benchmarks -- currently 0.15% per year. That, in effect is the rate the government, through the Fed, ... (full story)