[stopads]

It's kind of hilarious that they still spend money on the PR team to push these stories about how important and sanctimonious cash is while at the same time printing billions of dollars every night and just transferring to any bank or hedge fund that wants it in the overnight repo market.

A whole set of theatrics for the commoners who still use cash, meanwhile we just press some buttons and poof a billion dollars appears out of thin air in your account (if you're rich enough).

[reaperducer]

commoners who still use cash

You're right, it's much better to use payment methods that track my wants, needs, desires, habits, location, companions, financial status, political and religious preferences; and then weaponizes it against me. Stupid commoners and their freedom.

[wyattpeak]

Whatever the merits of the parent comment, I think you're misinterpreting their intent.

Their stance is that the average citizen is made to jump through hoops to get their cash replaced, while major players are handed money freely. The "commoners" appellation is sarcastic.

[refurb]

Those two issues seem completely unrelated to me.

One has to do with replacing damage cash, the other with control over the money supply.

[toast0]

This is like 99% off topic, but my understanding of the repo market is that the loans are:

Short term, often overnight, but some are 7 days

Fully collaterialized, with good collateral like treasury bills

Interest bearing

So it seems to me like risk free money is to be made here, and sure, there's a market failure if there aren't enough private lenders, but why is it a problem for the government to step in?

[H8crilA]

Not to mention that it was normal to do repos in the US before the post crisis money market moved to the floor system (IOER), and currently is normal for most money markets around the world.

The grandparent has a point but he's barking at the wrong tree. It's all about the artificially low interest rates, world wide. Money supply is a prisoner of rates. Let's see how this setup unwinds...

[testfoobar]

We crossed the Rubicon in 2008 with government intervention in money markets.

Consider this: "France's Richest Man Gets a Free Lunch From the ECB" https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-07/louis-...

Or this: "All-star economists urge Fed to use QE and ‘new tools’ to fight next recession — just move sooner and go bigger than crisis" https://www.marketwatch.com/story/all-star-economists-urge-f...

[RosanaAnaDana]

>A whole set of theatrics for the commoners who still use cash, meanwhile we just press some buttons and poof a billion dollars appears out of thin air in your account (if you're rich enough).

It does seem as if an identical-ish puff piece finds its way through the aggregators at least quarterly. I think the actual content of the story is irrelevant enough and I have some misgivings about attributing nefarious motives to this participial puff piece, but I do take issue with the kinds of non-story this article represents, and the collection distraction that journalism as infotainment represents (being neither truly informative, nor particularly entertaining).

[morpheuskafka]

I don't think that this article is uninformative. Many citizens are unaware of this program and it could come in handy some day (hopefully not, but it's a good thing to know). More useful than reading something dumb a politician said today.