After discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in consultation with the Treasury, we invoked emergency authorities to provide special financing to facilitate the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Our liaison contacts and others in the business community have certainly seen the effects of this. Shipping costs are up sharply, and so are some other costs (Graph 4). It is hard to know how long these disruptions will last. Many countries are still contending with outbreaks that are constraining output.