quantitative easing

Weak inflation readings in the US continue provide the Fed with the rationale to maintain securities purchases in what amounts to a "QE trap". With the PCE inflation measure once again below one percent, the FOMC doves fear that "taper"…

I've suggested previously that QE could actually be deflationary. I looked at it from several perspectives - collateral effects, the monetary transmission mechanism, distributive effects, even Peter Stella's "deadwood" inhibiting bank…

Over the past couple of years it has gradually become the consensus view that QE has failed because it hasn’t created the economic growth that everyone was hoping for. I find that view overly simplistic and naïve in equal measures. QE - or…

It is not US fundamentals, but global fundamentals that will determine the Fed's ability to taper. If the Fed tapers when the global economy is already in the doldrums, as it is at the moment, the recessionary rebound to the US economy…

At 2PM ET today, the Federal Reserve is releasing the latest FOMC statement. Market players do not expect the Fed to taper its large scale asset purchase program because recent economic data in the US have been weak. Given controversial…

Fama has been doing research on QE for the last six months. And he basically tells Santelli that QE in the Treasury market is an asset swap of short-term government debt for long-term debt. Fama’s depiction of QE is accurate and mirrors…

I believe policy makers at the the Federal Reserve have soured on the marginal effectiveness of quantitative easing as a primary tool for monetary policy. As interest rate policy is still not effective with the policy rate at zero, forward…

So imagine you are a moderate FOMC member. This is the economic situation you face and the trade-offs in terms of policy tools.

I was just re-reading Richard Werner’s initial quantitative easing scheme for Germany from 1995. What he says is relevant to today’s situation in Europe and the United States as well as for today’s Japan. I want to highlight a few lines…

Just after I posted today, I ran across two posts from March that I wrote on government and private debt that are related to theme of today's commentary on potential housing bubbles in Germany and Sweden. I am writing here to more tightly…