The Real Reasons the Fed Announced QE 4

"On December 12, the US Federal Reserve surprised yet again by announcing QE 4: a program through which it would purchase $45 billion of US Treasuries every month.

Between this program and the Fed’s QE 3 Program announced in September, the Fed will be monetizing $85 billion worth of assets every month ($40 billion worth of Treasuries and $45 billion worth of Mortgage Backed Securities) ad infinitum.

Indeed, the Fed’s new policies are anchored to its goal of getting employment down to 6.5%. This means the Fed will buy these assets non-stop until employment gets down to 6.5%.

I’ve spoken to a number of people in the financial community as well as outside investors and no one seem to grasp the significance of this announcement.

First and foremost, QE does not create jobs. The UK has announced QE efforts equal to an amount greater than 20% of its GDP and has not seen any meaningful job growth. Similarly, Japan has announced nine rounds of QE for a combined effort equal to 20% of its GDP over the last 20 years and job growth remains dismal there.

Based on this, the Fed’s decision to anchor its QE efforts to employment is a bit hard to swallow. Indeed, I would argue that the Fed’s moves have very little to do with employment and instead are meant to address the following:

1. The US economy is nose-diving again and the Fed is acting preemptively.
2. The Fed is trying to provide increased liquidity going into the fiscal cliff.
3. The Fed is funding the US’s Government massive deficits.

Regarding #1, the November ISM report indicates the US economy is again contracting. Looking at the chart, you can sense why Bernanke and the Fed are getting concerned: the similarities between the recent downturn of the last few years and that going from 2004- 2008 are striking. It’s obvious helicopter Ben doesn’t want us breaking into the mid’40s range.




Similarly, the ECRI, which has proven a far better judge of the onset of US recessions than the NBER, has stated that the US likely slipped back into recession in September. Bernanke and the Fed have close ties to the ECRI. I believe they’re moving preemptively based on this announcement.

We get additional indication of things worsening in the US economy from the NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index. This measure has entered an absolute free-fall, posting its single largest drop in over 30 years. To put this into perspective, this indicates that Small Business Owners are becoming less optimistic about the future of the economy faster now than they were after Lehman failed..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-23/real-reasons-fed-announced-qe-4