These artificial revenue enhancements, used in recent years by Enron and a host of other companies, include off-balance-sheet purchases and sales, revenue swaps, undisclosed acquisitions, quid pro quo sales linked to equity investments, and accelerated recognition of leasing and service contract revenue, among others.
Central banks could once again intervene through their experimental combination of exceptionally low policy rates, unusual policy communication and additional balance-sheet purchases.
Analytical TLC was performed using precoated TLC silica gel 60 F254 aluminum sheets purchased from EMD (Gibbstown, NJ) and visualized using UV light.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department keeps borrowing billions to fund efforts to jumpstart the economy and the Fed continues expanding its balance sheet with purchases of mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds.
Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting glasses (8 Ω/sq sheet resistance) purchased from Solaronix, Aubonne, Switzerland were used as electrode substrates.
Over the past year, for example, the Fed has used its balance sheet to purchase longer-dated securities, particularly mortgage-backed securities, helping to keep yields down across the entire yield curve.
However its off-balance sheet manufacturing purchase obligations, components to be bought by Apple and provided to its vendors over the next 150 days, has seen this line item grow from $21.7 to $27.1 billion over the past year, or up 25%.
As the 2008 crisis unfolded, monetary policy changed dramatically, and the Fed expanded its balance sheet by purchasing trillions of dollars worth of mortgage backed securities (MBS) and long-term Treasuries.
The Fed surprised no one by holding its target range for federal funds at between zero and 0.25%, but also said it will further expand its balance sheet by purchasing $750.0 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities and ended months of hints by confirming that it will buy $300.0 billion worth of longer-term U.S. Treasury bonds over the next six months.
Instead, the German approach offers 400 billion euros in guarantees for inter-bank loans and another 80 billion euros for direct injections of capital to restore weakened balance sheets and purchase the toxic, illiquid assets that have already forced several German banks to the brink of collapse.
But they are saying that their tolerance for continuing to enlarge their balance sheets by purchasing long-term bonds for cash is very limited indeed — the so-called "taper".The problem is that financial markets simply do not believe the central bankers when they say that a present desire to "taper" is completely unconnected with any future desire to raise short-term interest rates.
