英语角 第4期

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BANKS AND RATES

Easy money does not mean easy banking profits. Even so, the decision by the Federal Reserve to increase the discount rate at which it lends to banks was hailed as the beginning of the end for bank profitability. In fact, the move is something of a technicality borrowing under the main discount facility is now about $14bn, down from a crisis-time peak of more than $110bn. Use of the term auction facility, which the Fed has been winding down for some time and will end in March, has also declined.

True, the Fed’s zero interest rate policy has kept the yield curve steep. With US banks’ average net interest margin at a four-year high, some banks laden with bad assets last year benefited as cheaper funding helped to balance continuing high rates of provisions and credit costs.

But this cannot last. Yields in banks’ loan books are already shrinking, notes Institutional Risk Analytics. That worsens the longer rates remain low as assets reprice, and redemptions and charge-offs shrink outstanding loans.

Rising rates, by contrast, should make it easier for banks to deploy money profitably. Sharp rises increase the chances that some banks fall flat over their interest rate risk. But, argues Credit Suisse, banks have been converting loan books to variable pricing, which means greater earnings uplift from rising rates.

With $1,100bn of excess bank reserves at the Fed, this presents another problem: that banks lend out those reserves, delivering a boost to the economy at just the wrong time. This explains the renewed emphasis on payment of interest on reserves, a tool to prevent that happening. That, however, is a headache for the central bank. Banks should welcome tighter money, even if those borrowing from them do not.

Relish the Moment

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering --waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. In stead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.