The Federal Reserve launched an ambitious bond-buying program to help the economy create jobs and growth.
The program, called Quantitative Easing 2 (QE2), is slated to end next month.
Now that the end is near and another round of Fed market intervention (QE3) seems likely, it is time to ask the question: who benefited?
Savers? No.
The unemployed? Just marginally.
Investors in stocks, gold, oil and other commodities? Yes.
An article on CBS MarketWatch did a good job laying out the real result of the program.
The truth? QE2 has created a massive new bubble in dollar-based financial assets, from stocks to gold. Meanwhile, it has had zero visible effect on the real economy.
Take jobs. According to the U.S. Labor Department, since last August the number of full-time workers has gone up by just 700,000, from 111.8 million to 112.5 million.
At a cost of $600 billion, that’s $850,000 a job
Sure, there is a little bit of Monday-morning quarterbacking going on here considering the U.S. economy was teetering on recession when the program was launched. But those facts are hard to ignore. Similar to how TARP dollars went to shore-up bank balance sheets (instead of increasing consumer loans), there appears to be a bait-and-switch with the Fed bond-buying program. Savvy investors (and probably hedge funds) made out like bandits, while the economically-depressed are stuck in neutral.
Read the rest of the Marketwatch article at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/qe2-was-a-bust-2011-05-21
Clark Schultz Blog 