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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?
MSFT 476.080.0%Dec 17 3:59 PM EST

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To: John F. Dowd who wrote (38261)2/22/2000 4:18:00 AM
From: Dinesh  Read Replies (1) of 74651
 
John

I don't understand where this conversation is leading to
now, or what is the purpose of this all.

YES, the Discount Rate is lower than the target Fed
Funds rate. It usually is. The Funds Rate is market driven
and fluctuates a ton, but the Fed indicates its
target by jacking up (or down) the Discount Rate. You can
see it daily in WSJ or Barrons or a lot of other places. The
Fed doesn't fix the Funds Rate.

Banks transact on Funds Rate. Discount Rate applies when
a bank can't find reserves on the market. The Fed
grants the loan but it also maintains an book
titled "We Hate You", or "We Think You Are A Risky Business"
or something like that -- banks don't want their name in
that book. Particularly, if the Fed thinks the bank is
arbitraging the Discount v/s Funds rates.

The intent, once again, is never to rake in more from the
banks, but only to make it costlier for the banks to
support their loans portfolio. Thereby impacting the rates
banks charge their customers. It's one way to control
the total debt levels. Does it always work this way ? Who
knows -- people have written a million books on the
efficacy of this model.

There are other methods too. Fed can change the margin
requirements to curb or facilitate borrowing against stocks;
the reserves requirements to throttle the supply of loans.
Discount rate is usually to raise or lower the cost of the
loans. I bet there are 63,000 other methods too.

There are some very good books out there that discuss
how money markets work. Stignum (sp?) is a good place. You
can search on infoseek or wherever.

Regards
Dinesh
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