re: Can someone explain how the DOW is at 14,000 yet the Sky is falling

Here’s a recap of some of the larger Fed moves during the Crisis:



Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
The Fed kicks off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
$40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
Operation Twist reshuffles $400 billion of the Fed’s portfolio (Oct ’11)
QE 3 buys $40 billion of Mortgage Backed Securities monthly (Sept ‘12)
QE 4 buys $45 billion worth of Treasuries monthly (Dec ’12)


All that cash had to go somewhere. Not to the regular Joe though.