Yesterday I mentioned the announcement by the FDIC to end its debt guarantee program and opined that this was the first sign of tightening/liquidity withdrawal by the U.S. government.  Today the evidence is mounting that this is indeed an orchestrated move toward policy normalization.
The FT spoke to treasury officials who confirmed this interpretation:
A senior Treasury [...]

I just received notice that the FDIC Board has approved the phase out of the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) in a first clear sign that the U.S. Federal Government has started policy normalisation.
The FDIC Board today adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) that reaffirms the expiration of the debt guarantee component of the [...]

According to an account published in the Daily Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Chinese government is quite anxious about money printing in the United States and the effect this printing could have on China’s dollar denominated reserve assets.
For months now, the Chinese have signalled growing unease with U.S. monetary policy. And now comes the clearest [...]

You have heard me use the phrase “liquidity is seeking return” to describe the increase in the price of riskier assets due to monetary stimulus. The Bloomberg News video clip below points to an increase in lending for buyers of riskier loans like high yield and mortgage bonds.

The blurb below from the associated article at [...]

While most economists have come out in favor of Barack Obama’s decision to re-appoint Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Stephen Roach has penned an Op-Ed in today’s Financial Times which highlights the case against Bernanke. It is must reading.
Roach has three main points.

Before the Lehman bankruptcy, Bernanke was an adherent of [...]

Below is a copy of the actual judgment in the Bloomberg News vs. Fed FOIA case.  The case is: Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan), No. 08-9595.
Hat tip Barry Ritholtz and Zero Hedge.
Bloomberg FOIA Lawsuit Decision
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This from the Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel:
President Barack Obama will announce Tuesday that he is nominating Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said.

No Larry Summers, no Janet Yellen.  Bernanke gets another four years.
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This just in from Bloomberg:
The Federal Reserve must make public reports about recipients of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers under programs created to address the financial crisis, a federal judge ruled.
The case is: Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan), No. [...]

Over the past week, America’s banks have had a bumper earning season, in part courtesy of the Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy. Even before this week, a number of market pundits (including me) began to wonder aloud whether the Fed had any strategy with which to remove all of the excess liquidity it has created [...]

On numerous occasions you will have heard me use the term ‘monetizing debt’ to describe what happens when the central bank creates money out of thin air in order to increase reserves in the banking system. The central bank is certainly increasing the monetary base in this regard, but are they really monetizing the debt [...]