First Result of the Bailout: Less Free Capital

Alea notes TAF results:

Total propositions submitted: $138.092 billion
Total propositions accepted: $138.092 billion
Bid/cover ratio: 0.92

Number of bidders: 71

The auction in question was supposed to be a $150B, 85-day auction to get firms through year-end. (For contrast, the last 84-day [12 week] auction had a bid-to-cover of 1.27.)

Clearly, all the firms that are using the TAF have no capital impediments through the end of the year. The crisis is over!

So why is the government in the Commercial Paper business?