Treasury Auctions for the Week of Feb. 17

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DealBook: Treasury Sells $3 Billion Stake in Ally Financial

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday. There will be no auctions on Monday in observance of Labor Day. At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.03 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.05 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.02 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

WEDNESDAY

Portland Sewer System, $215.5 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

Allegheny County, Pa., $134 million of general obligation bonds. RNC Capital Markets.

Jacksonville, Fla., $121.5 million of special revenue and refinancing bonds. J.P. Morgan Securities.

Mansfield Independent School District, Tex., $50 million of school building bonds. Raymond James & Associates.

New Jersey Economic Development Authority, College Avenue Redevelopment Project, $238 million of lease revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Oakland Unified School District, Calif., $114 million of general obligation bonds.

Onondaga County Trust for Cultural Resources, N.Y., $65.2 million of revenue bonds. J.P. Morgan Securities.

Public Utility District No. 2, Washington, $63.3 million of electric system revenue refunding bonds. J.P. Morgan Securities.

Texas A.& M. Board of Regents, $352.8 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds. Wells Fargo Securities.

Treasury Prods Lawmakers on Raising Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON — Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department said on Monday that it expected to lose the ability to pay all of the government’s bills in mid-October.

That means a recalcitrant Congress will face two major budget deadlines only two weeks apart, since the stopgap “continuing resolution” that finances the federal government runs out at the end of September.

Members of Congress are sharply divided over what to include in measures financing the government and raising the debt ceiling.

Some Republican lawmakers have said they want to see an increase in the debt limit paired with other measures to decrease the deficit. “We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending,” Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio told reporters last month.

Republicans have also floated the idea of insisting on delaying parts of the Affordable Care Act as part of any deal.

But on Monday, the White House again said it would not allow Republicans to use the debt ceiling as political leverage in negotiations this fall. “Let me reiterate what our position is, and it is unequivocal,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “We will not negotiate with Republicans in Congress over Congress’ responsibility to pay the bills that Congress has racked up, period.”

The debt ceiling stands at about $16.7 trillion. Congress passed a measure increasing it by about $300 billion in January.

Congress will also wrangle over how to keep the federal government’s lights on. The White House and many members of Congress want to try again for a broader deficit-reduction deal, which might replace the $85 billion in mandatory cuts known as the sequester with a different package of cuts, including changes to social programs and perhaps tax increases.

“The president has put forward a clear compromise proposal, a broad compromise proposal that would reduce the deficit significantly, including through savings in our entitlement programs, in a balanced way,” Mr. Carney said on Monday. “We continue to await a response.”

Administration officials are again warning about the havoc Congress might unleash by failing to raise the debt ceiling.

The Treasury would be able to spend money only as it came in. It might be forced to choose certain payments over others — paying bondholders but not Social Security recipients, for instance. Some analysts question whether the government’s payment systems could even handle such prioritization.

“The rate at which cash will be drawn down depends on factors that are inherently variable and irregular,” Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said in a letter Monday to Mr. Boehner imploring the House to act on the debt ceiling before mid-October. “If investors should become unwilling to loan the United States money, the United States could face an immediate cash shortfall. Indeed, such a scenario could undermine financial markets and result in significant disruptions to our economy.”

The government officially bumped up against its borrowing limit in May. At that point, the Treasury stopped issuing new debt and started employing “extraordinary measures” to ensure that the government had enough cash to make its required payments. But those measures bought only so much time.

If the continuing resolution were to expire without a new patch or appropriations bill, the federal government would shut down, with thousands of employees put on furlough and only essential services, like air traffic control, continuing.

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.04 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.07 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.02 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

MONDAY

Florida International University, $51.5 million of debt securities. Competitive.

TUESDAY

Minnesota, $200 million of trunk highway general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Minnesota, $265.2 million of various purpose general obligation bonds. Competitive.

WEDNESDAY

Alabama, $137.7 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Washington State, $532.9 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Washington State, $275.1 million of motor vehicle fuel tax general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Washington State, $44.7 million in general obligation bonds. Competitive.

THURSDAY

Nassau County, N.Y., $128.1 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

AHS Hospital Corporation, N.J., $112 million of taxable bonds. Goldman Sachs.

Atlanta Development Authority, $116.1 million of revenue bonds. Bank of America.

Austin Independent School District, Tex., $98.1 million of general revenue bonds.

California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, $195.8 million of refunding revenue bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

City of Chicago, O’Hare Airport, $247.3 million of customer facility charge senior lien revenue bonds. Bank of America.

Contra Costa Community College, Calif., $140.5 million of general obligation bonds. Backstrom McCarley Berry.

E-470 Public Highway Authority, Colo., $66.1 million of senior revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, $265 million of turnpike revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, $600 million of power revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Regents of the University of California Medical Center, $635 million of pooled revenue bonds. Barclays Capital.

South Carolina Public Service Authority, $1.2 billion of general revenue bonds. Goldman Sachs.

South Carolina Public Service Authority, $326 million of revenue obligation bonds. Morgan Stanley.

South Carolina Public Service Authority, $250 million of revenue obligation bonds. Barclays Capital.

State of Ohio, $51 million of educational facility revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Texas Public Finance Authority, $64 million of refunding bonds. Build America Mutual Assurance.

Tufts Medical Center, Mass., $100 million of taxable bonds. Barclays Capital.

Raskin Would Be First Female Deputy at Treasury

Ms. Raskin is a Federal Reserve governor and a former state banking regulator. At the Treasury, Ms. Raskin would take the position held by Neal S. Wolin since the beginning of the administration.

In a statement about Ms. Raskin, Jacob J. Lew, the Treasury secretary, said, “Sarah has a deep understanding of banking and financial regulatory issues as well as a firm grasp of how to run large, complex organizations.” He added, “Sarah has demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting consumers, and she shares my conviction to do everything possible to increase job creation, accelerate economic growth and strengthen the middle class.”

A person with knowledge of the process, but without permission to speak on the record about personnel policy, said Mr. Lew had put forward Ms. Raskin’s name for the job and was particularly interested in her administrative abilities. The deputy secretary takes a large role in running the sprawling department, with tasks as diverse as the minting of currency and the collecting of taxes.

Mr. Lew also appreciated her knowledge of financial markets and regulation given the enormous continuing task of putting into effect the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law, this person said.

Ms. Raskin is lawyer who was trained at Harvard and who worked as a Maryland state regulatory official before joining the Fed in 2010. She had earlier worked on Capitol Hill and at the Promontory Financial Group, a consultancy.

Ms. Raskin’s move to the Treasury would leave yet another vacancy at the central bank. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, is widely expected to leave at the end of his term in January, and Elizabeth A. Duke, a Fed governor, plans to step down in late August.

The search for a new Federal Reserve leader has raised questions about the relative dearth of women in top economic policy-making positions. Janet Yellen, the Fed vice chairwoman, is considered a contender for the top job. Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary and economic adviser to Mr. Obama, is also considered a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bernanke.

Some Democratic members of Congress and economists have urged Mr. Obama to appoint Ms. Yellen, while several current and former White House aides are said to be pressing for Mr. Summers.

Treasury Auctions Set for the Week of July 29

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.02 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.06 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.02 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

TUESDAY

Missouri, Regal Convention and Sports Complex Authority, $69 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

Atlanta Development Authority, $116 million of revenue bonds. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch.

Chula Vista Municipal Financing Authority, Los Angeles, $76.6 million of refunding bonds. De La Rosa and Company.

Colorado, Health Facilities Authority, $75 million of hospital revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

County of Genesee, Michigan, $54 million of general obligation bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Indiana, Health Facility Financing Authority, $95 million of revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Lehigh County Authority, Pennsylvania, $292 million of capital appreciation bonds. Goldman Sachs.

Los Alamos Unified School District, California, $52 million of general obligation bonds. George K. Baum.

Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, $51 million of revenue bonds. Goldman Sachs.

Milwaukee County Airports, Wisconsin, $50.1 million of revenue bonds. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch.

Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, $100 million of revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Orange County, Calif., Transportation Authority, $124 million of road revenue refunding bonds. Barclays.

Private Colleges and Universities Authority, Emory University, Georgia, $207 million of general obligation bonds. Barclays.

Riverton City, Utah, $73 million of revenue bonds. George K. Baum.

State of Oregon, $78 million of revenue bonds. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch.

Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority, $115 million of revenue bonds. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch.

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.05 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.08 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.02 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

TUESDAY

Louisiana, $299.9 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Schenectady County, N.Y., $66.9 million of debt securities. Competitive.

WEDNESDAY

Massachusetts, Water Pollution Trust, $188 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

Seattle, $55.2 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

THURSDAY

Illinois, sales tax, $300 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Schools, $58.7 of general obligation bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Denver, Regional Transportation District, $202.3 million of refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Indiana, $202.3 million of Beacon Health System Hospital Revenue Bonds. Wells Fargo Securities.

Houston, $190 million of revenue and refinancing bonds. Loop Capital Markets.

Cypress-Fairbanks, Tex., $142.1 million of refinancing bonds. Wells Fargo Securities.

Riverside County, Calif., $68.5 million of refinancing bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Illinois, $152.3 million of revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.

Illinois, $127.6 million of housing bonds. Ramirez.

Lafayette, Ind., $59.2 million of refinancing revenue bonds. Piper Jaffray.

Texas, $67.8 million of tax refinancing bonds. FirstSouthwest.

Metropolitan School District, Warren, Ind., $83.1 million of refinancing bonds. City Securities.

Maryland, $147 million of revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Massachusetts, $117 million of housing bonds. Barclays Capital.

Texas, $90.4 million of school building bonds. Stifel, Nicolaus.

Pima County, Ariz., $93.1 million of certificates of participation. RBC Capital Markets.

Rhode Island, $59.1 million of building and site bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Sonoma County, Calif., $137 million of general obligation refinancing bonds. Piper Jaffray.

Virginia, $93.1 million of infrastructure revenue bonds. Raymond James.

U.S. Treasury Secretary and Chinese President Meet

Mr. Lew, 57, a master of the intricacies of the United States budget who has less foreign experience than his predecessors, raised the topic of cybersecurity, a significant issue in the relationship between Washington and Beijing, American officials said. He also talked about North Korea’s nuclear program, a topic not normally on a Treasury secretary’s agenda, they said.

Mr. Xi noted that while the United States and China had “enormous shared interests, of course, unavoidably we have some differences.”

It has been unusual for Chinese leaders to draw attention to stark divisions with the United States. Mr. Xi’s choice of words showed confidence that he could manage the problems, and hinted at a lowering of expectations about developing a strategic relationship with the United States, an idea that had been proffered in the past, diplomats here said.

Contacts between Washington and Beijing have been sparse during China’s protracted political transition over the past three months. It began in November when Mr. Xi took over as head of the Communist Party, and ended last week with his ascension to the presidency at the annual session of the National People’s Congress.

For reasons of protocol, President Obama did not speak with Mr. Xi until last week, when he called the new Chinese president to congratulate him and to outline the issues at hand, including North Korea and cybersecurity.

The White House has directly accused China of widespread theft of data from American computer networks, including those of American businesses involved in the Chinese market. China’s cyberespionage against American commercial interests has attracted strong attention in Congress that could have negative consequences for China, analysts said.

“If we don’t see progress, that could increase the prospects for a political backlash that would lead to greater scrutiny of Chinese investment in the United States,” said Myron A. Brilliant, executive vice president and head of international affairs at the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

On North Korea, the Obama administration wants to know whether Beijing will enforce the new sanctions that the United Nations Security Council imposed on the North, with China voting in favor. The administration has also announced an expansion of missile defense capabilities in an effort to deter North Korea, a message that implied that China should restrain its nuclear-armed ally or face an expanding American military focus on Asia.

Mr. Xi appeared to have gone out of his way to meet Mr. Lew before leaving Friday for his first foreign trip as president, which is to include two days in Moscow, followed by a three-nation tour of Africa. Mr. Lew is the first foreign official Mr. Xi has met as president, and Mr. Xi endowed some meaning to his phrase to Mr. Lew that he attached “great importance” to the relationship between China and the United States.

At the same time, however, Chinese commentators have noted that Secretary of State John Kerry chose to make his first trip abroad an extended journey to Europe and the Middle East, unlike his predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who visited Asian nations first, including China. Mr. Kerry is expected to be in China next month as part of an Asian tour, administration officials said.

This trip is Mr. Lew’s first to China, according to administration officials. The previous two Treasury secretaries, Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Timothy F. Geithner, were experts on China, and for the past seven years they played dominant roles in the relationship between the countries.

Mr. Lew arrived in Beijing on Tuesday morning and went almost immediately to the Great Hall of the People. He was accompanied by Lael Brainard, under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs, and Evan Medeiros, a senior official of the National Security Council who specializes in China.

As Mr. Lew and Mr. Xi sat side by side in large, white-upholstered armchairs, Mr. Lew stressed in brief comments overheard by reporters that the United States had seen 14 quarters of economic growth, that the housing market was “coming back,” and that a “revolution” was under way in the energy sector, a reference to shale gas production. After that, reporters were ushered out.

The meeting lasted about 45 minutes, according to Mr. Lew’s aides. The secretary stressed the need for a relationship marked by “healthy competition rather than strategic rivalry,” a Treasury Department statement said.

Later, Mr. Lew met with Xu Shaoshi, the new chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the powerful agency that manages the domestic economy. He was scheduled to have dinner with the new finance minister, Lou Jiwei, and Wednesday he is to meet with China’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang.

For his first lunch in China, Mr. Lew repaired to the Bao Yuan Dumpling House, an informal restaurant with laminated tabletops close to the United States Embassy.

There, with two staff members, he ate a variety of house specialties, using chopsticks. The bill: 109 renminbi, or roughly $6 a person.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 19, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a senior official of the National Security Council. He is Evan Medeiros, not Madeiros.

Transcript of ’44 Bretton Woods Meeting Found at Treasury

Historians had never known that a transcript existed for the event held in the heat of World War II, when delegates from 44 allied nations fighting Hitler gathered in the mountains of New Hampshire to create the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But there were three copies in archives and libraries around Washington that had never been made public, until now.

“It’s as if someone handed us Madison’s notes on the debate over the Constitution,” said Eric Rauchway, a historian the University of California, Davis.

Economic historians who have viewed the transcript say it adds color and detail to the historical record, an already thick one given the many contemporaneous and subsequent accounts of Bretton Woods. The transcript seems to contain no great surprises, but it sheds light on the intense debates as the war raged abroad.

It depicts John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, hurrying to marshal support for the broad agreements on international finance. It underscores the tremendous power then wielded by Britain and, especially, the United States. It also shows the seeds of contemporary disputes being sown.

For instance, seven decades ago, a number of poorer or smaller countries were protesting their International Monetary Fund quotas, which determine power in the fund. Many of those countries, including China and India, are still pushing for more influence today.

In one section of the transcript, an American representative lays out a proposal for apportioning power in the fund and underscores what was at stake, with the war coming to its bloody climax in Europe.

“We fight together on sodden battlefields. We sail together on the majestic blue. We fly together in the ethereal sky,” said Fred M. Vinson, who later became chief justice of the United States. “The test of this conference is whether we can walk together, solve our economic problems, down the road to peace as we today march to victory.”

But the response was not one of absolute unity.

“In spite of the very eloquent and moving speech of the United States delegate, on behalf of the Iranian delegation I wish to state that the quota proposed for my country is entirely unsatisfactory,” a delegate from Tehran responded.

Then, a delegate from China added: “I hesitate greatly to sound a note of discord at this conference. It has been the effort of the Chinese delegation to promote harmony and the success of this great common enterprise. But every delegation has its difficulties.”

The Netherlands, Greece, Australia, India, Yugoslavia, New Zealand, France, Ethiopia, Norway and Britain then added their comments and objections. “I think that a lot of people have thought of Bretton Woods as being a stitch-up job between United Kingdom and the United States,” Mr. Rauchway said. “But that’s overstated, and it’s definitely visible in this transcript. You can see the poorer countries fighting their own corner.”

Kurt Schuler a Treasury Department economist, was browsing in an “out of the way” section of uncataloged material in the library two years ago when he came across the Bretton Woods document. He flipped through and saw some remarks by Keynes that he was not familiar with, sort of the economists’ equivalent of a Bob Dylan fan finding unknown lyrics.

“I checked them against Keynes’s collected works,” Mr. Schuler said. “And I knew I had something.”

His research revealed that there were three copies of the transcript that scores of economic historians were not aware of: the version at the Treasury Department; one in the National Archives; and the third in the International Monetary Fund archives.

In his spare time, Mr. Schuler set about turning the yellowed transcript into a book, with a co-editor, Andrew Rosenberg. It took a tremendous amount of work, Mr. Schuler said. They read the transcript aloud into transcription software. They added hyperlinks to documents referenced at the conference, and wrote summaries, annotations and historical notes.

This week, the polished transcript was published as an 800-page e-book by the Center for Financial Stability, a nonprofit group based in New York that researches financial markets, where Mr. Schuler is a senior fellow and Mr. Rosenberg a research associate.

“Everyone thinks they know what happened at Bretton Woods, but what they know has been filtered by generations of historical accounts,” Barry Eichengreen, a professor or economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. “International monetary history will never be the same.”

The transcript provides “insight in how it was that they were able to maintain a pace of work which allowed them to reach two really big agreements, on the I.M.F. and the World Bank, within a space of three weeks,” Mr. Schuler said. “Keynes was something of a task master,” he added.

Benn Steil, a senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, said readers can see the British Empire “disintegrating before your eyes,” in the transcript. “The Indians are so vociferous that the British are ripping them off. The British are both furious and mortified that their colony would do this to them,” he said, describing a dispute over debts with the colonies.

“Bretton Woods was itself 95 percent Kabuki theater,” he said. “But it’s interesting Kabuki theater.”

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.10 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.14 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.10 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

MONDAY

Johnson County, Kan., Unified School District, $79.8 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

TUESDAY

California, $549.8 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

Charleston County, S.C., School District, $62.1 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

WEDNESDAY

Minnesota, $219.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

California Health Facilities Financing Authority, $65 million of hospital debt securities. Bank of America.

Chesapeake, Va., $153 million of toll road revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Colorado Health Facilities Authority, $1.6 billion of Catholic Health Initiatives revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Conroe, Tex., Independent School District, $210 million of unlimited tax school building and refinancing bonds. FirstSouthwest.

Cypress-Fairbanks, Tex., Independent School District, $76 million of refinancing debt securities. Wells Fargo Securities.

El Paso, $82.2 million of general obligation refinancing bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Griffin, Ga., $54.5 million of combined public utility revenue refinancing bonds. Raymond James.

Honolulu, $889 million of tax-exempt debt securities. Bank of America.

Illinois Housing and Development Authority, $54 million of housing revenue bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Indiana Finance Authority, $61 million of facilities revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Indiana Municipal Power Agency, $52 million of power supply system revenue refinancing bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Indiana, $381 million of Community Health Network debt securities. Wells Fargo Securities.

Lakewood, Colo., $109.3 million of revenue refinancing bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Miami-Dade County, $488 million of special obligation bonds. Citigroup Global Markets.

Oklahoma Water Resources Board, $85 million of debt securities. Bank of America.

Philadelphia, $71.2 million of water and wastewater revenue refinancing bonds. Siebert Brandford Shank.

San Antonio, $50 million of revenue refinancing bonds. FirstSouthwest.

St. Louis, $147.4 million of wastewater system refinancing revenue bonds. Siebert Brandford Shank.

Tarrant, Tex., Regional Water District, $102.4 million of water revenue refinancing bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Virginia College Building Authority, $60 million of educational facilities revenue bonds. Goldman Sachs.

Virginia Resources Authority, $53 million of debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets.

Wake Forest, N.C., Baptist Medical Center, $228.6 million of hospital refinancing revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.