zero hedge Wed 2010-04-07 18:31 EDT

Quantitative Easing And Its Effect On Inflation And The Economy

Sancho Ponzi

The Fed's response to the financial meltdown was twofold: Interest rates were effectively set at zero, and the monetary base was increased 140%. While it is not known exactly what formula the Fed used to arrive at the 140% increase of the monetary base, the expansion from roughly 800 billion to 2.2 trillion roughly correlates with the asset backed securities since purchased by the Fed...Rather than an attempt to spur bank lending, Bernanke, like Paulson before him, employed QE strictly to offload toxic assets from bank balance sheets in an attempt to make banks and other financial institutions whole, with the effect of preserving historically inflated asset valuations for residential real estate. As a result, massive increases in federal spending have been required to offset the erosion of private sector GDP...

economy; effect; Inflation; Quantitative Easing; Zero Hedge.

Fri 2008-02-22 00:00 EST

Between The Lines > Inside Bernanke's Brain - The Fed's Response To The Crisis

Between The Lines > Inside Bernanke's Brain - The Fed's Response To The Crisis, by Aaron Krowne; "Fed doesnt actually control rates, at least not directly. It only sets a TARGET"; "in times of great distress (as now), the rates can get away from the Feds grasp, and it becomes important to distinguish. Specifically, if the Fed were to try to force the funds rate up to the 4.5% target while they were naturally trading around 3%, they would actually have to WITHDRAW liquidity from the system, causing a catastrophic deflationary spiral."

Bernanke's Brain; Crisis; Fed's responsibilities; lines.