强大的美联储已经快被逼到极限，不论是它被要求处理的一系列问题，还是它的财务火力都是如此。
承担了几千亿美金的按揭证券来帮助疲软的金融机构之后，中央银行基本接管了美国国际集团。它几乎是在一夜之间成了美联储的一部分。
美联储不能再像从前那样只是在象牙塔里制定货币政策，现在他们必须扮演许多不同的角色---保险集团，银行投资家，甚至对冲基金经理。
分析家说，他们认为周一申请破产的华尔街公司，雷曼兄弟正通过仅成立6个月的美联储紧急贷款计划，为大型投资银行借贷数以百亿美金。
几个月来，因为害怕被视为软弱，投资银行一直回避美联储的贷款计划。但 wrightson ICAP克兰戴尔先生曾预言，自上周末雷曼兄弟证券及其他投资银行可能已经为此损失500亿美元。
如果他们确实如此，美联储官员将会有比现在更危险的抵押品风险。
A New Role for the Fed: Investor of Last Resort
New York Times
The mighty Federal Reserve is being stretched to its limits, both in the range of problems it is being asked to fix and in its financial firepower.
The central bank has also transformed itself almost overnight into the Fed Inc. by essentially taking over American International Group after already taking on hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage securities to help ailing financial institutions.
Instead of just setting monetary policy in its Ivory Tower-like setting, the Fed now must wear several hats — that of insurance conglomerate, investment banker and even hedge fund manager.
Analysts say they believe that Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street firm that filed for bankruptcy on Monday, is borrowing tens of billions of dollars through the Fed’s six-month-old emergency loan program for big investment banks.
For months now, investment banks have shunned the Fed’s lending program because they feared being perceived as weak. But Mr. Crandall, of Wrightson ICAP, predicted that Lehman and other investment banks might have already tapped it for $50 billion since last weekend.
If they did, Fed officials will be holding collateral that is even riskier than what they already have.
