But the Fed’s remarkable loosening of monetary policy changed the weather in the currency markets. Only a select few—Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea—could access dollars by way of the Fed’s swap lines. Rumor had it that Indonesia, as a G20 member in good standing, had applied to the Fed for a swap line, to complement those it already had in place with the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of Japan. It was denied but was offered instead a $60 billion repo facility with the New York Fed.37 This made little difference. What mattered was the huge wave of liquidity that the Fed unleashed. With
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