In the past we have explained how QE continues to “fail upward” because instead of injecting credit that makes its way into the economy, what Bernanke is doing, is sequestering money-equivalent, high-quality collateral (not to mention market liquidity) – at last check the Fed owned 33% of all 10 Year equivalents – and by injecting reserves that end up on bank balance sheets, allows banks to chase risk higher in lieu of expanding loan creation. Alas it took a few thousands words, and tens of charts, to show this. Since we always enjoy simplification of complex concepts, we were happy to read the following 104-word blurb from Bridgewater’s Co-CEO and Co-CIO Greg Jensen, on how QE should work… and why it doesn’t.
The effectiveness of quantitative easing is a function of the dollars spent and what those people do with that money. If the dollars get spent on an asset that is very interchangeable with cash, then you don’t get much of an impact. You don’t get a multiplier from that. If the dollar is spent on an asset that’s risky and very different from cash, then that money goes into other assets and into the real economy. That’s really how you see the impact of quantitative easing. What do they buy? Who do they buy it from? What do those people do with that money?
Of course, this is why sooner or later the Fed will proceed to “monetize” increasingly more risky, and more non-cash equivalents assets, until “this time becomes different.” Which it never is, but the Fed will still try, and try and try.
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ZGLApkdZhDM/story01.htm Tyler Durden