Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder Marc Rowan warned in an email to clients, policymakers and government officials that liquidity is evaporating from markets so quickly that the economy will unravel without more support from the Federal Reserve.
“Jobs and payroll will not be preserved or able to restart quickly once the virus subsides,” Rowan wrote last weekend in the email, a copy of which was provided to Bloomberg. “The status quo will be upended and the economy in a shambles rather than being preserved for a restart.”
Apollo spokeswoman Joanna Rose declined to comment on the email or its contents.
Investment-grade and otherwise credit-worthy companies are so starved for access to cash that many are considering bankruptcy, Rowan wrote. With financing also drying up, pension funds, endowments and investment managers have become forced sellers of securities.
Markets are seizing up because banks no longer provide nearly as much credit as they did prior to the financial crisis, Rowan explained. Instead, debt capital now comes through a complex food chain of investors and fund managers, with short-term financing supplied by banks against portfolios of collateral.
Rowan sees a solution to the liquidity crisis in programs the Fed and Treasury Department have already rolled out to relieve stress in markets. Specifically, he proposed expanding the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, so the central bank can lend against a broad range of investment-grade collateral and not just AAA-rated securities.
He said the Fed should operate like a bank, levering the Treasury’s $450 billion of “equity capital” in the stimulus act 10 times to achieve $4.5 trillion of firepower.
“Picking industries rifle shot is a waste of time,” Rowan wrote. “The Fed’s duty is to preserve the economy, not to avoid all credit risk.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.