... or not http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-171-banks-which-margin-failure-one-thousand-dollars This is sloppy even by ZH's standards. So a few banks seem to have run $1000 test transactions on the discount window and ZH gets all worked up about it. A couple of replies from ZH here were what really got me interested. In fact, only 32% of the 170 (they repeat Enterprise NB of Palm Beach) banks listed conducted more than one transaction, a fraction which is virtually the same as "virtually all" And... In fact, only 8 of the 170 banks listed carried out more than one $1000 transaction. ZH seems to subscribe to MBS prospectus school of statistics. I did a little pivot table analysis of the 170 banks for those interested: http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/5378135/img/Anonymous/171-Banks.jpg (safe for work) A slightly deeper look at the data would show how little one can conclude from the small transactions. For example the Commercial Paper Funding Facility has one $2000 transaction. CPFF is a SPV of the FRBNY and one the very biggest users of the discount window. Most of these banks haven't borrowed anything significant from the discount window despite having access to it. This would suggest that most of these banks are in pretty sound shape. If there are any bank runs as a result of this article I hope ZH finds itself faced with a class action.
