The amount is an all-time high as the Federal Reserve continues to expand its balance sheet, partially to purchase U.S. government debt securities.

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Finally, the acquisition binge has left Danaher with a mountain of goodwill on its balance sheet--goodwill being the excess of the purchase price over the book value of the acquired business.

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These three sets of policy tools--lending to financial institutions, providing liquidity directly to key credit markets, and buying longer-term securities--have the common feature that each represents a use of the asset side of the Fed's balance sheet, that is, they all involve lending or the purchase of securities.

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