Speaker 2
So I think they cite hedge funds as having above average leverage and specifically the biggest hedge funds have more leverage than they're comfortable with.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So that's often a source of instability because what ends up happening is that hedge funds are full sellers because there's a crisis in one asset class, which is often an illiquid asset class. And that means they end up selling the liquid stuff. So that's usually the path of contagion and how it spreads from one asset class to multiple asset classes. Hedge funds are usually the contagion route, kind of like toddlers at nursery. Oh, don't talk to me about toddler contagion. This is one bloody cold after another at the moment. But it's not just the Federal Reserve that does these stability reports. Every big central bank does it, the ECB, the Bank of England. And personally, I love reading them, because you can see that, you know, at least they care about this stuff. I mean, that's their job. They've got to care about it, even if they miss the obvious thing sometimes. But it's good that somebody cares and, you know, that they're monitoring it. But it's also a really useful source of information. They kind of publish information, which is difficult for retail investors to find elsewhere. And that's why it's useful, I think, to read. I
Speaker 2
mean, the obvious place to start really with this report is what did they say about the banking crisis, which we're at the end of or in the middle of?
Speaker 1
No one's really quite sure. I don't think they're sure either. I mean, they're hoping that they've kind of stopped contagion, certainly in the US, with the loan program that they've got. But I think their point, which is a good one, is that this isn't going to be a repeat of 2008, because then it was about bad quality assets. This time, it's about good quality assets, your as treasuries, which have lost value due to increasing interest rates,
Speaker 2
due to the Fed's actions.