Fed's "Balance" Sheet: I Don't Feel So Good

From the Federal Reserve statistical release H.4.1 (1/29/09):

-- The Federal Reserve System holds $47.37 in assets for each dollar of capital

-- Their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities have decreased by $243 billion in 1 year

-- Term auction credit totaled $415 billion

-- Commercial Paper Funding Facility has provided $248 billion in liquidity

-- Deposits from depository institutions (The Fed's liability) totaled $740 billion, a $702 billion increase from a year ago

Let's not forget the assets that the Fed is carrying on their balance sheet that resulted form the Bear Stearns deal and AIG deal: $47 billion in securities that are basically impossible to price.

Those assets are the ones that are particularly dangerous to the Fed, they only have $41 billion in capital.