Former UP executive director, Jon Decker,  pointed out to us this chart of massive Fed losses on their lending activities.

With the Fed now operating at significant losses it so recently incurred, it strikes one as strange that they would be entrusted to tell profitable banks when, where, and how much, they can lend. It seems a bit like asking MySpace how to run Facebook.

We shouldn’t be too surprised. The Fed has a long record of badly mishandling every aspect of its mandate, from maintaining the stability of the dollar, to regulating payments systems, to appropriately supervising banks.  It would almost certainly fail a real stress test.

Jerome Powell’s term as chairman can’t end soon enough.