In October, when the Federal Reserve announced that it would begin buying Treasury bills to increase the size of its balance sheet, the burning question was: Is the Fed restarting quantitative easing?
This time around, the central bank is buying short-term Treasuries to the tune of $60 billion a month, along with temporary cash injections via overnight and term repurchase agreements, to alleviate the reserves shortage in the banking system. What’s more, the three earlier rounds of large-scale asset purchases were focused on lowering long-term interest rates to stimulate demand for housing and investment, whose borrowing costs are generally tied to the long-term risk-free rate, and to prod investors to buy riskier assets, such as stocks and corporate bonds, in turn lifting their prices.
Taking the ‘Q’ out of ‘QE’ Even those earlier actions weren’t true to their name. I like to say that the Fed took the Q out of QE when it started paying banks interest on reserves, or the deposits banks hold either voluntarily or because they are required to, curtailing a natural expansion of money and credit.
At the same time, banks were forced to hold more reserves to satisfy the more stringent liquidity coverage ratios imposed after the financial crisis.
cabaum1 narrative cc: LukeGromen
cabaum1 The fed is now responsible for the next CRASH.
cabaum1 POWELL AND THE DEEP STATE.
cabaum1 President Trump’s policies are driving everyone’s 401K abd IRA’s higher.
cabaum1 Lol just a big coincidence right balance-sheet expansion and rise in S&P 500? 🤦🏿♂️
cabaum1 It’s called SUPPLY & DEMAND. This is that fabled Supply-side Economics we’ve been told was impossible.
cabaum1 Maybe. Either way it's a bunch of Keynesian nonsense.