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> There's some deep hypocrisy in fiscal policy, but I think the Fed is doing what the Fed can do to keep jobs and inflation in balance. Sure, I guess I agree o

> There's some deep hypocrisy in fiscal policy, but I think the Fed is doing what the Fed can do to keep jobs and inflation in balance. Sure, I guess I agree on this. But there has to be something more I don't understand. The interest on savings goes up with the interest on loans. Is it maybe "quantitive easing" that is the real culprit?

gameman144 4y ago
> But there has to be something more I don't understand. The interest on savings goes up with the interest on loans. This is true, but it's all because of the one interest rate that the fed controls: the interest rate at which it lends to banks. If that rate goes up, then banks are willing to pay higher savings rates to depositors (since banks don't want to pay higher Fed interest rates to borrow, so luring in depositors is a replacement). Since banks are paying more for their money, though, they also need to charge more on the loans they give. This is why those move in tandem. Quantitative easing/tightening also does one thing: either buy or sell financial assets at the Fed. Historically this has been bonds and other low-yield, long-term instruments, but always with the purpose of either stimulating the economy (by buying assets and pumping money into the economy) or selling assets (thus pulling money out of the economy to cool it). I would agree that the Fed buying stocks during COVID isn't what I would have liked, but mostly because stocks are an asset class where volatility and risk are baked in (and I don't like the moral hazard of the Fed absolving investors of that risk). Quantitative easing as a mechanism, though, is a pretty blunt and simple tool to either pull money out of push money in to the economy. I reckon that the early-COVID hey-day of easing probably had something to do with the super-high valuations we're seeing today, but the actions the Fed is taking _now_ seem like a reasonable and rational response to that overheating.

gameman144 4y ago

> But there has to be something more I don't understand. The interest on savings goes up with the interest on loans. This is true, but it's all because of the one interest rate that the fed controls: the interest rate at which it lends to banks. If that rate goes up, then banks are willing to pay higher savings rates to depositors (since banks don't want to pay higher Fed interest rates to borrow, so luring in depositors is a replacement). Since banks are paying more for their money, though, they also need to charge more on the loans they give. This is why those move in tandem. Quantitative easing/tightening also does one thing: either buy or sell financial assets at the Fed. Historically this has been bonds and other low-yield, long-term instruments, but always with the purpose of either stimulating the economy (by buying assets and pumping money into the economy) or selling assets (thus pulling money out of the economy to cool it). I would agree that the Fed buying stocks during COVID isn't what I would have liked, but mostly because stocks are an asset class where volatility and risk are baked in (and I don't like the moral hazard of the Fed absolving investors of that risk). Quantitative easing as a mechanism, though, is a pretty blunt and simple tool to either pull money out of push money in to the economy. I reckon that the early-COVID hey-day of easing probably had something to do with the super-high valuations we're seeing today, but the actions the Fed is taking _now_ seem like a reasonable and rational response to that overheating.