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Accounting for interest rate risk: Matching Fed assets to liabilities
The Fed has floating-rate liabilities as well as long-lived, zero-interest liabilities. A barbell of floating-rate and long-duration assets would best offset the interest rate risk from these liabilities. Investing in a more diversified mix of durations, while matching the average duration of assets, could be more practical than the barbell approach but would leave a substantial portion of interest rate risk unhedged.
Working Paper
An Asset-Liability Management Approach to the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet
The Federal Reserve’s liabilities include a mix of floating-rate instruments, such as reserves, and long-duration, non-interest-bearing instruments, such as currency. We investigate the implications of an asset-liability management approach to choosing assets to back these liabilities, with a focus on matching the duration of assets and liabilities. We study the net income volatility and mark-to-market volatility of several different asset maturity ladders using a Monte Carlo simulation of future interest rate paths. Short-duration ladders minimize net income volatility when paired with ...
How sensitive is the Treasury cash-futures basis trade to funding condition shifts?
The Treasury cash-futures basis trade, a very large, leveraged Treasury trade, has drawn scrutiny because unwinding positions amplified stress during the pandemic-era market shock of March 2020. With estimates suggesting the trade has since grown larger, attention is focused on how well it might weather future shocks.