, meaning that they would “ probably ” ( 22. 2 percent ) or “ certainly ” ( 27. 9 percent ) be unable to come up with $ 2, 000 in 30 days to cope with a financial emergency. 7 similarly, almost half of all americans report having trouble making ends meet. 8 almost half of all households surveyed in the 2009 survey of consumer finances had less than $ 3, 000 in liquid savings, and 20 percent had less than $ 3, 000 in broader savings. 9 finally, in a recent survey on the effects of unemployment and the recession, 70 percent of workers reported withdrawing funds saved in college and retirement accounts for present day needs, likely leading to a significant loss of wealth in future years. 10 these circumstances emphasize the importance of unrestricted savings, or savings that can be used for emergencies or precautionary purposes. cobbling together even a minimum amount of emergency savings can have a significant impact, especially among lower - income households. in fact, the consumer federation of america found that lowincome families with $ 500 in emergency savings had better financial outcomes than annamaria lusardi, daniel schneider, and peter tufano ( 2011 ), “ financially fragile households : evidence and implications ”, brookings papers on economic activity ( washington, d. c. : brookings institution, spring ), www. brookings. edu / ~ / media / files / programs / es / bpea / 2011 _ spring _ bpea _ papers / 2011 _ spring _ bpea _ conference _ lusardi. pdf annamaria lusardi ( 2011 ), “ americans ’ financial capability ”, report prepared for the financial crisis inquiry commission, http : / / fcic - static. law. stanford. edu / cdn _ media / fcic - testimony / 2010 - 0226 - lusardi. pdf bricker, bucks, kennickell, mach and moore, “ surveying the aftermath of the storm : changes in family finances from 2007 to 2009 ”. debbie borie - holtz, d., carl van horn, and cliff zukin ( 2010 ), “ no end in sight : the agony of prolonged unemployment ”, new brunswick, nj : john j. heldrich center for workforce development, rutgers university, may 2010. http : / / www. heldrich. rutgers. edu / sites / default / files / content / work _ trends _ may _ 2010 _ 0. pdf bis central bankers ’ speeches

market operations and the discount window, strains in term funding markets persisted and became particularly elevated in early december in response to year - end pressures. the magnitude of these strains can be gauged using the spread between libor – that is, the london interbank offered rate – and the overnight indexed swap ( ois ) rate at the same maturity, because the ois rate reflects the average overnight interbank rate expected over that maturity but is not subject to pressures associated with credit and liquidity risks to the same degree as libor. as shown in chart 2, the one - month and three - month libor - ois spreads were at low levels through the month of july but increased markedly in august and early september at the onset of the financial market turmoil. 6 the one - month spread declined during the fall but rose sharply again toward the end of the year. in association with these wider spreads, liquidity in term bank funding markets deteriorated substantially. to address these pressures, the federal reserve introduced a new policy tool called the term auction facility ( taf ). 7 with this tool, the federal reserve auctions a pre - announced quantity of credit to eligible borrowers for a term substantially longer than overnight ; thus far, each auction has involved a term of one month. as with primary credit, a depository institution is eligible to participate in a taf auction if the bank is judged to be in generally similar patterns are evident in the spread between the term federal funds rate and the ois rate at these maturities. the taf was introduced as a temporary measure, but the federal reserve has left open the possibility that this facility could become permanent ( bernanke, 2008 ). sound financial condition, and a wide variety of collateral can be used to secure the loan. the minimum bid rate for each auction is established at the ois rate corresponding to the maturity of the credit being auctioned. the introduction of the taf was announced on december 12 in conjunction with related announcements by the bank of canada, the bank of england, the european central bank, and the swiss national bank ( board of governors, 2007c ). 8 the first two auctions were held on december 17 and 20, for amounts of $ 20 billion each, and were very well subscribed : a large number of banks participated in each auction, and the total value of bids was about three times as large as the amount of credit auctioned. the resulting interest rate in both cases was about 50 basis points above