Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Fed Looks at Exit Fees on Bond Funds

This is how dumb the Fed is--er, not so smart, I meant.

Federal Reserve officials have discussed imposing exit fees on bond funds to avert a potential run by investors, underlining regulators’ concern about the vulnerability of the $10tn corporate bond market.

Officials are concerned that bond-fund investors, as with bank depositors, can withdraw their money on demand even though the assets held by their funds are long-term debt and can be hard to sell in a crisis. The Fed discussions have taken place at a senior level but have not yet developed into formal policy, according to people familiar with the matter.
Let's distill what the Fed (the smartest guys in the room) are contemplating.  They want to impose exit fees to preempt a run on bonds--a selling panic from bond investors.  Have they even considered that contemplation of said exit fee will CATALYZE bond investors to dump bonds before the fee takes effect?

As smart as the Fed officials are deified to be, they sure are lousy poker players.

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