Will US Fed need a bailout?

Through the global crisis, banks have been going bust left, right and centre. Some have been allowed to fail while some of the luckier ones were bailed out. But the underlying reason for all of them was the same - liabilities were higher than assets.

Imagine if this were to happen to the world's most powerful central bank. Yes. We are talking about the US Fed. The bank's liabilities have been going up thanks to the rounds of quantitative easing that it undertook. But at the same time, asset creation has lagged behind. The central bank has been using most of its money in buying the treasury bonds. If and when inflation starts to kick in, the value of these bonds would start to take a hit. As a result, experts have started to question - will the US Fed need a bailout in times to come?

As per its Chief, Mr. Bernanke, this is impossible. In case such a situation should arise, then the bank would just not put its profits back into the treasury as it normally does. The theoretical way out is to sell bonds and suck up the excess liquidity. But this would impact the country's growth rates. Another way to avoid this from happening is to just open up the money printing press and shower notes from the helicopter. We are all aware that Mr. Bernanke is only too happy to resort to the latter method.