by Caitlin Kenney

The blogosphere is abuzz today over news that the Federal Reserve plans to inject $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.

Here's the take from Simon Johnson at Baseline Scenario:

The big banks are essentially making themselves Too Politically Toxic To Rescue, and this has potentially bad macroeconomic consequences. So what will Bernanke do?

As he sees the world, there is only one course of action remaining: print money and hope for a moderate degree of inflation. The money part was, of course, the announcement yesterday from the Fed.

 

The inflation part is a leap of faith. If inflation is driven by the so-called "output gap," i.e., how far the US economy is below potential output, then prices will not increase much, the yield curve steepens moderately, and banks make out like bandits (it's just an expression).

But if the whole world is moving more into an emerging market-type situation then (a) inflation expectations become deanchored (central bank jargon for "really scary"), (b) potential output falls as we massively deleverage, and (b) people move increasingly into alternative assets - storable commodities spring to mind - and we get some serious inflation.

Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution writes:

It is cheaper and quicker than fiscal stimulus; this should have been our first move. It is more likely to work. There are two effects: lowering long-term interest rates and the helicopter drop of the cash. It belies previous talk of a liquidity trap. It does not address most of the underlying problems in the real economy and as you know I see the "sectoral shift" element of this downturn as very much underrated. In that sense don't expect too much. It shows that at the limit fiscal and monetary policy blur together. The more the Fed takes on its balance sheet, the more the long-run independence of the central bank is damaged.

And from Naked Captialism:

The Fed first and foremost is trying to prop up asset prices, particularly housing, out of a view that their current level is the result of irrational pessimism. The Fed had indicated in earlier statements that it was going to target interest spreads over Treasuries of various types of credit products, and that is still by far the greatest use of firepower. However, the addition of Treasuries is a new, albeit expected, wrinkle. Let's face it, if the long bond continues on its march to 4%, the Fed can do all it wants to contain mortgage spreads, but it become increasingly difficult to keep mortgage rates from rising.