Quantitative easing is a term for when a central bank creates new money out of 'thin air' to inject into the banking system. The aim is to increase the amount of deposits in private banks so that, by way of
deposit multiplication, they can increase the money supply by increasing debt (lending).
'Quantitative' refers to the money supply; 'easing' refers to reducing the pressure on banks.
[1] A central bank can do this by using this new money to buy
government bonds (
Treasury securities in the United States) in the open market, or by lending the new money to deposit-taking institutions, or by buying assets from banks in exchange for currency, or any combination of these actions. These have the effects of reducing interest yields on government bonds, and reducing inter-bank overnight interest rates, and thereby encourage banks to loan money to higher interest-paying bodies.
In layman's terms, the central bank creates new money and through the various purchases described above this new money is deposited in accounts in private banks. The private banks can then in turn create new money themselves through
Fractional Reserve Banking in a process known as 'deposit multiplication'. The US
Federal Reserve's now out of print booklet
Modern Money Mechanics explains the process.
Quantitative easing was used notably by the
Bank of Japan (BOJ) to fight domestic
deflation in the early 2000s.
[2] More recently during the
global financial crisis of 2008, policies announced by the US
Federal Reserve under
Ben Bernanke to counter the effects of the crisis have been likened to quantitative easing coupled with the issuance of new debt on the US federal balance sheet.
[3][4]
In Japan's case, the BOJ had been maintaining short-term
interest rates at close to their minimum attainable zero values since 1999. With quantitative easing, it flooded commercial
banks with excess
liquidity to promote private lending, leaving them with large stocks of
excess reserves, and therefore little risk of a liquidity shortage.
[5] The BOJ accomplished this by buying more government bonds than would be required to set the interest rate to zero. It also bought
asset-backed securities,
equities, and extended the terms of its
commercial paper purchasing operation.
[6]
La bce potrebbe adottare anche queste misure straordinarie che se ho capito bene sono già utilizzate dalla boe e dalla fed
non mi è ben chiaro quando come e cosa
