The Fed will exchange the Treasury notes for other securities, including federal agency debt, federal agency residential mortgage-backed securities and nonagency AAA-rated private-label residential mortgage-backed securities.

FORBES: Fed To The Rescue!

Currently, bank-held federal-agency securities and debt amount to one-third of total bank capital a highly concentrated risk.

ECONOMIST: Homesick blues

In Washington, clamor grows for a new Federal agency to deal with bad bank debt.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Ironically, the turning-point came earlier this year, when it was suggested that, as the supply of Treasury bonds dwindles thanks to the federal government's surplus, mortgage-agency debt could replace them as the benchmark used for pricing other fixed-income securities.

ECONOMIST: Homesick blues

The Federal Reserve also continues to reinvest the principal amounts of maturing issues of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities into new agency mortgage-backed securities.

FORBES: Big Bernanke Rally Puts Stocks Into Danger Mode

"To help support the economic recovery in a context of price stability, the Committee will keep constant the Federal Reserve's holdings of securities at their current level by reinvesting principal payments from agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in longer-term Treasury securities, " the FOMC says, adding it will continue to roll over the Federal Reserve's holdings of Treasury securities as they mature.

FORBES: U.S. Economy

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is nearing a decision on whether to allow the companies to participate in the debt-forgiveness program that it consistently has resisted.

WSJ: Data Show Fannie, Freddie Savings From Debt Forgiveness

And the plight of 20 million homeowners holding mortgages greater than the value of their real estate needs a major fix in mortgage debt service, even placing many of these homes on a rental basis indefinitely through a federal agency.

FORBES: My Country, Right Or Wrong, My Country!