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Read my reply to the other poster, as it basically addresses this directly. But the TLDR is that it distorts the activity in the treasury markets, reducing tre
by adam_arthur 5y ago
Read my reply to the other poster, as it basically addresses this directly.
But the TLDR is that it distorts the activity in the treasury markets, reducing treasury yields, and encourages risk taking/juices asset valuations. And they buy 30y treasuries, so you really think in the span of 30 years this money won't get lent out?
The Fed played no small part in housing rallying 30-40% nationally in the span of 18 months. Does this seem normal or natural to you? What about the youth that want to own some day? We are multiple standard deviations above the 100yr inflation adjusted mean for housing, well above the 2008 bubble peak now.
This is called pulling forward 10 years worth of gains/value to the present, IE a generational transfer of wealth from the young (non-asset owners) to the old (asset owners). For this reason alone, the policy is a total disaster. People claim to care about wealth inequality, but cheer excessively easy money policies on at every turn.
The obvious other reason it's a disaster is because of moral hazard and risk taking that can lead to more epic declines than a smoothed business cycle. The Fed played a big part in the psychology around the dotcom and 2008 bubble, for example. Read up on the Greenspan Put. Earlier action from them could have prevented these.
The Fed buys 60% of all newly issued treasuries. This is almost banana republic levels of monetization of the debt.
Yes, the government pays interest on this debt just the same, but they have a buyer willing to pay any price without concern to fair value.