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Comment by eclipticplane | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing the FDIC can just hold them to maturity. The FDIC also has immediate access to a $100 billion loan from the treasury via statute if they needed cash.

Over the lifetime of the bonds/loans, they might even make money like what happened in the TARP program.

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Surely inflation adjusted they’ll be massively out of pocket if they hold the bonds to maturity.

That’s why they’re worth so little in the first place.

Inflation does not affect a bond’s value

As a matter of opportunity cost then. You’ll lose money if you hold these to maturity, which is why their value has fallen in the first place.

not to be pedantic, but my understanding is their value dropped because the treasury is selling higher interest bonds. Why would anyone buy a low interest bond at face value when for the same-price purchase a high interest bond?

It's not just that. A bond's price is simply the sum of its discounted future cash flows. i.e. the coupon value divided by (1+) the interest rate. When interest rates rise, the price goes down.

The Fed will accept treasuries as collateral for face value loans to banks for 1 year as part of the announcement. The losers here will be bank shareholders (of underwater banks) because they will need to dilute themselves to make up the difference when the loan gets called unless they can find other ways to make money in the meantime.

You wouldn’t buy it at face value. That’s what it means to say that its value has fallen.

Expected inflation definitely affects bond values today

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