The data provides ammunition for the Federal Reserve to maintain its aggressive policy easing, despite a rift among policy makers on continuing asset purchases.
Owners of professional sports team have been trying for years to persuade the I.R.S. to allow them to amortize their increasingly lucrative media deals, but the I.R.S. has ruled that those are continuing assets, and nondeductible under special tax rules established in 1993 for professional sports.
"Balance sheet cleansing and de-levering will only continue to keep asset valuations under pressure and the probability of continued write-downs high, in our view".
The central bank said that it would continue the asset purchases until it was satisfied the program had worked, but it did not designate a time frame or a specific economic benchmark for when it would stop.
This, coupled with the pending losses associated with sequestration in April and May, will provide fodder for the doves at the Federal Reserve to keep the spigot fully open and continue with asset purchases in June.
Mr Hands, a specialist in buying unfashionable underperforming assets, turning them round and selling them on, hopes to continue managing assets he purchased for Nomura.
Still, it seems likely that Allegheny, which is based in Hagerstown, Md., will have to continue selling assets.
"The Fed, if it wanted to, and it may yet need to, could continue buying assets and expanding its balance sheet," Mr. Goodfriend said.
"Such risks are particularly relevant for central banks that have been purchasing large amounts of debt securities with long maturities, such as the (US) Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, which recently adopted continued monthly asset purchases, or the Bank of England".
