The lessons of the past year for central bank reserve managers – overseers of $7,000bn in foreign exchange assets, four times the amount managed by their flashier cousins, the sovereign wealth funds – stand in stark contrast to the convictions they developed over the prior decade. As central bank forex assets quadrupled in the 10 years following the emerging markets crisis of 1998, reserve liquidity was deemed excessive and more diversified investment strategies compelling. With growing confidence, sovereign assets were shifted away from the US dollar, government bonds and gold to higher-yielding currencies, credit and even equity instruments. The government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and by second derivative, US homeowners) were primary beneficiaries of this trend; central bank holdings of GSE debt grew from about $100bn in 2001 to more than $1,000bn at their peak last year. Commercial banks also swelled with central bank deposits rising from $400bn to $1,400bn over the same period.
央行储备资产管理者过去一年得到的教训，与此前10年形成的信念形成了鲜明对比。央行储备管理者管理着7万亿美元外汇资产，是看上去更为浮华的姊妹机构——主权财富基金——所管理资产规模的4倍。在1998年新兴市场危机爆发后的10年间，央行外汇资产增加了3倍，储备资产的流动性被视为过剩，更多元化的投资战略变得更具说服力。由于信心不断增强，主权资产从美元、政府债券和黄金转向高收益货币、信贷甚至是股权工具。政府支持企业(GSE)房利美(Fannie Mae)和房地美(Freddie Mac)（进一步还可以衍生到美国的房屋所有者）是这一趋势的主要受益者；在去年的鼎盛时期，央行所持GSE债务从2001年的约1000亿美元升至逾1万亿美元。同期，商业银行在央行的存款从4000亿美元升至1.4万亿美元。