The Federal Reserve and the 2020 Economic and Financial Crisis

This Article provides a comprehensive legal analysis of the Federal Reserve\u27s response to the 2020 economic and financial crisis. First, it examines the sixteen ad hoc lending facilities that the Fed established to fight the crisis and sorts them into two categories. Six advance the Fed\u27s monetary mission and were designed to halt a run on financial institutions. Ten go beyond the Fed\u27s traditional role and are designed to directly support financial markets and the real economy. Second, it maps these programs onto the statutory framework for money and banking. It shows that Congress\u27s signature crisis legislation, the CARES Act, suspended several existing restrictions on Fed lending sub silentio. And it reveals how the Fed\u27s lending to securities dealers and foreign central banks, a practice dating back more than fifty years, has never been expressly authorized by Congress. Third, it argues that these tensions reflect deficiencies in our contemporary economic and financial architecture. Finally, it suggests reforms targeted at improving the government\u27s response to future economic and financial emergencies