The Costs and Benefits of Qe

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Quantitative easing is considered an unconventional policy tool which has been widely employed by Central Banks across the world during the recent crisis, not without controversy. Discuss the costs and benefits of such a policy tool. QE is the government's attempt to stimulate growth by essentially printing money. When interest rates are cut so low that they cannot be cut any further and growth is still sluggish then the only option for central banks seems to be QE. Central banks thus pump money directly into the economy by buying assets, normally government bonds that belong to certain institutions such as commercial banks. Thus this boosts the money supply within the economy. Since the recent crisis the Bank of England has injected £375bn into the economy hoping to stimulate growth. This essay will discuss both the costs and benefits of this policy tool and ultimately conclude that QE does not seem to do enough. One of the benefits of QE is that it increases the money supply and thus increases liquidity to the banking system. This means that there would be easy credit access for businesses and individuals as banks, pension funds and insurance firms are now more willing to lend money. This in turn should result in an increase in spending and thus an increase in consumption and so aggregate demand would increase leading to economic growth. However, during a recession, even if there is a huge amount of liquidity available, individuals and businesses are likely to be very nervous and are unlikely to want to spend and invest. Another effect that QE has is to increase asset prices. This occurs the central banks go and buy government bonds owned by various institutions and investors, increasing their price and decreasing their yield and thus making them an unattractive investment. In response, investors buy assets such as corporate bonds and stocks and thus asset

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