By Paul Kiernan and
Nick Timiraos
Updated Oct. 11, 2019 11:15 am ET
WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve will begin buying Treasury bills on Tuesday to boost its balance sheet and avoid a recurrence of the unexpected strains experienced in money markets last month, the central bank said in a statement.
The Fed said Friday it will begin initial purchases of $60 billion in Treasurys over the month beginning next Tuesday. The central bank will continue purchases of Treasury bills of unspecified amounts into the second quarter of 2020.
The Fed’s rate-setting committee met by videoconference last Friday, Oct. 4, to discuss recent developments in money markets and voted unanimously on the plans announced Friday morning to purchase Treasury bills to expand its balance sheet.
Write to Paul Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com and Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com
Jared Dillian called unemployment the "laggingest of lagging indicators" yesterday. I'm willing to bet you aren't "unemployed" regularly the way people in the entertainment industry are. I filed for unemployment just last week. By asserting myself as "unemployed" I am certifying that: - I am available for work M-F at least 8 hours a day - I am not in any kind of school - I have not earned a single red cent for an employer or as a freelancer - I have not contracted with any school - I have not contracted with any government - I have not done anything with military reserves - I have not received any funds that were previously owed to me - I have been actively looking for work in a documented fashion and have not been offered any So yeah. If you're "unemployed" you aren't driving for Uber, delivering for TaskRabbit, solving crosswords on Mechanical Turk or even filling out fucking surveys for beer money. I love how everyone's all "unemployment is the lowest it's been in 50 years!" without looking around and going "maybe we're counting wrong."