The wild thing is that the Federal Reserve is suffering from its own asset-liability mismatch due to the rise in interest rates. Income from its $8+ trillion balance sheet of Treasuries and MBS isn't covering its expenses (interest it must pay on reserves+operating expenses). But unlike a normal bank, the Federal Reserve cannot go bankrupt. It just books negative income and pays out by creating new money.
Agreed. The Fed is the backstop to the banking system.
But I think the Fed has been over-accommodative since 2008. Their reaction function to crises has been to lower rates/print money and then wait. They should've tightened much faster post 2008.
Did Silicon Valley Bank really screw up in 2021 by buying Treasuries if the Fed itself was doing the same? The Fed was doing QE and buying Treasuries in March-22 well into inflation.
I think the error was trusting the Fed to be a good steward of inflation. It is not. We're all learning the hard way.
I mean that is literally the entire point of their existence.