Чарльз Плоссер, глава ФРБ Филадельфии, признался в интервью Рейтерс, что последние месяцы Фед ведет активную подготовку к возможному дефолту США, который наступит 2 августа, если к тому времени не будет повышен потолок госдолга.

Фед разрабатывает процессы и процедуры, при которых Казначейство передаст ему часть своих функций.

Фактически Федрезерв будет действовать как банк Казначейства; он будет осуществлять платежи, начиная от выплат в социальные фонды и кончая зарплатой государственным служащим.

Более подробно:

One aspect of the Fed's contingency planning is purely operational: the Fed is developing procedures about how the Treasury would notify it on which checks would get cleared and which wouldn't, Plosser said.

The Fed effectively acts as the Treasury's bank -- it clears the government's checks to everyone from social security recipients to government workers.

"We are developing processes and procedures by which the Treasury communicates to us what we are going to do," Plosser said, adding that the task was manageable. "How the Fed is going to go about clearing government checks. Which ones are going to be good? Which ones are not going to be good?"

"There are a lot of people working on what we would do and how we would do it," he said.

Plosser added that there are difficult questions that the Fed itself had to grapple with.

The Fed lends to banks at the discount window against good collateral. But what happens if U.S. Treasuries no longer fit that bill?

"Do we treat them as if they didn't default, in which case we would be saying we are pretending it never happened? Or do we treat them as if they defaulted and don't lend against them?" Plosser said. "Those are more policy questions."

У меня возникает вопрос: означает ли это, что Федрезерв будет печатать новые деньги? Или он будет заимствовать свободный кэш из федеральных фондов?

Эти действия Феда вообще чем-то регламентированы?