
The world is a scary place right now. So scary that investors can't get enough US dollars: Demand for the greenback, the world's safe haven currency, is through the roof.
The Federal Reserve responded to the shortage on Sunday by lending out dollars at near-zero rates to five major foreign central banks.
And now the Fed is expanding that emergency program to the central banks of nine other countries: Australia, Brazil, Denmark, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden.
The goal is to prevent a liquidity crunch that chokes off credit to the coronavirus-battered economy.
The Fed said these new lending facilities will provide between $30 billion and $60 billion to each central bank for "at least" six months.
This is on top of the Fed's existing dollar liquidity swap lines with Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland and the European Central Bank.
The Fed said these facilities are "designed to help lessen strains in global US dollar funding markets," lowering the risk that this stress hurts the supply of credit to businesses and households -- at home and abroad.