The Fed's tendency to favor Treasury and agency securities when conducting monetary
policy operations,
though innocuous enough when banks hold only minimal excess reserves so that the Fed leaves only a relatively modest «footprint» on overall credit
allocation, becomes a serious matter when banks pile - on excess reserves, turning the Fed into the central - bank equivalent of the abominable snowman.
The court upheld the trial judge's
allocation — even
though it was done as a lump sum under multiple benefit categories — because she adhered to the
policy objective set out in the Insurance Act of avoiding double recovery.