Large-Scale Asset Purchases by the Federal Reserve

Book excerpt: Since Dec. 2008, the Fed. Reserve¿s traditional policy instrument, the target federal funds rate, has been near zero. In order to further ease the stance of monetary policy as the economic outlook deteriorated, the Fed. Reserve purchased substantial quantities of assets with medium and long maturities. This paper explains how these purchases were implemented and discusses how they can affect the economy. The purchases led to meaningful and long-lasting reductions in longer-term interest rates (IR) on a range of securities, incl. securities that were not included in the purchase programs. These reductions in IR primarily reflect lower risk premiums, including term premiums, rather than lower expectations of future short-term IR. Tables.