24. Federal Reserve · Notable
Wind down the Federal Reserve's balance sheet to pre-2008 levels
Printed page 733 24. Federal Reserve · abridged
“Wind down the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Until the 2008 crisis, the Federal Reserve never held more than $1 trillion in assets, bought largely to influence monetary policy.”
What has happened
- Not started
The wind-down was stopped, far short of pre-2008 levels. At its meeting of October 29, 2025 the Federal Open Market Committee "decided to conclude the reduction of its aggregate securities holdings on December 1", ending the runoff that had been shrinking the balance sheet since 2022, and directed the Desk from that date to roll over at auction all principal payments from Treasury holdings and to reinvest all agency principal into Treasury bills. The July 2026 implementation note keeps that directive in force. The H.4.1 release of August 27, 2026 shows total Federal Reserve assets of $6,730,912 million — more than six times the roughly $1 trillion the Quote uses as the pre-2008 benchmark.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Leveling call, flagged for the consistency pass. The balance sheet did shrink during the first ten months of the window, but that runoff began in 2022, before the evidence window, and the only decision taken inside the window was to end it. A Status measures action taken on this ask, and the action taken was to stop.
#2011 asks Congress for the same wind-down and is leveled separately; #2014 (mortgage-backed securities specifically) is partial, because the October 2025 directive does continue to shrink one part of the portfolio.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Federal Reserve balance sheet holdings
- ID
- 2010