...A review of Quantitative easing Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: Quantitative Easing: Is it effective? Quantitative easing is an untypical monetary policy adopted by central banks to stimulate the economy and ease liquidity if other methods are ineffective. A steady and low rate of inflation is crucial for a stable and thriving economy. Without a steady rate of inflation, the economy becomes unpredictable, discouraging long-term ventures. Central banks use interest rates to control inflation (Gagnon et al, 2010). They set interest rates at which financial institutions can borrow from them. These rates trickle down to consumers in the end, thus affecting inflation. When inflation declines below a safe level for the economy, say 2 %, this is referred to as deflation. When deflation occurs to the point where there is hardly any inflation, the government may intervene by introducing money directly into the economy to achieve a desired level of inflation. This is what is referred to as quantitative easing (Rothbard, 1999). The central bank does this by buying financial assets from both banks and the private sector, and thus introducing new money into the economy. This paper investigates the efficacy of quantitative easing and its effects to the economy. Typically, central banks stimulate economies by purchasing government bonds to lower short-term interest (Krugman, 2003). However, when the central bank has lowered interest to the point that it is at zero or...
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...and aimed to follow in their footsteps. Near the end of the 20th Century, Japan was officially recognized as an economic superpower throughout the world. However, growth never lasts forever and by the 1990s, Japan’s economy had come to a grinding halt due to a massive collapse in both the real estate and stock markets of the Japanese economy and remains in a recession that has lasted till now. As Japan looked to face another year of stagnant growth of the economy, Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, decided enough was enough. With the assistance of the new governor of the Bank of Japan, Shinzo Abe embarked on a radical economic plan that focused on three arrows of design. The arrows depict the strategy of Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” program in which it focuses on fiscal stimulus, monetary easing, and structural reforms. (International Monetary Fund 2013) It is almost near the two year mark since the implementation of Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” program has begun. Although typically, economic effects of governmental policies require years to fully see the effects, “Abenomics” was designed as a jumpstart program with future decisions dependent on the immediate aftereffects of implementation. With the initial completion of the first two arrows of the “Abenomics” economic program and the implementation of the third arrow of structural reforms of the Japanese economy, labor, and tax...
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...The International Effects of Quantitative Easing The fiat currency system of today’s global economy makes possible one peculiar modern phenomenon: quantitative easing. Birthed from the Keynesian school of thought, quantitative easing is the hands-on method governments use to control economic growth by pumping money directly into the economy. The process begins when the central bank of a particular country prints new money in order to purchase assets—typically government bonds. The government then takes this new money and buys bonds from investors (banks, pension funds, i.e.), which increases the amount of cash in the financial system. The hope is that these financial institutions will be encouraged to lend more to businesses and individuals leading to an increase in investment and spending, and thus causing economic growth (Walker, 2014). Though reasonable in theory, it is heavily disputed whether QE has been successful at its intended purpose or actually quite harmful. Quantitative easing was first implemented on a large scale by Japan in 2001 after the Japanese economy had suffered persistent deflation (Zaidi, 2015). The traditional monetary policy of lowering interest rates to stimulate growth was not feasible, as interest rates at the time were already near zero (sound familiar?). Instead, the Japanese looked to quantitative easing to be the country’s savior. Unfortunately, rather than taking advantage of the extra cash bestowed upon them by this new policy, the financial...
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...percent. In contrast, a 10 year Japanese government bond yields down to 0.46 percent. * Gold price dropped 2.3 percent to a four year low of $1,162 per ounce. * Crude oil was down to $80.54 a barrel, eroded by 0.7 percent. Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2014/oct/31/bank-of-japan-expands-monetary-stimulus-eurozone-inflation-unemployment-live http://marketrealist.com/2014/11/santa-comes-early-japan-will-bojs-shock-stimulus-bet-pay/ 2. How would Japan’s new stimulus plan contribute to all of these change? Stocks go up since more people want to buy than sell securities. According to the plan, the Bank of Japan would be purchasing Japanese government bonds and stock market Exchange Traded Funds, causing demand for these securities to increase, as a result, the price of them would be higher. The prices of Japan-focused and international Exchange Traded Funds, which have significant positions in Japanese stock, was benefited by the additional stimulus. In addition, the program aimed to spur business and personal spending by increasing the monetary base of the Bank of Japan, which would lower the rate across the yield curve. Therefore, credit conditions would be relaxed in the country for both corporate and individual borrowers. Source:...
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...the 60's, 70's, and 80's leading into the 90's beginning. In the late 1990's, Japan’s economy marked its growth significantly slower, which had then come to be known as the 'lost decade' due to Japanese Asset Price bubble that collapsed. Eventually the nation faced major issues regarding environmental disasters, hollowing out of industries, etc. The past events which have caused the rise and downfall of Japanese Yen has been illustrated for examining the causes of the appreciation and depreciation of this currency. The influence of this floating currency on Japan's economy has been depicted in this case study. This paper also provides some applications of the measures that can maintain the stability of the Japanese Yen. Japan experienced tremendous growth throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s leading into the leading into the early 1990s. After World War II, Japan underwent a period of restoration followed by the events in 1978 where Japan excelled as a manufacturer partnering with the United States which helped to make its economy world's second largest economy until 2010, where it was surpassed by China, moving Japan to the world's third position. Japan’s economy saw growth slow significantly in the late 1990s which came to be known as the 'lost decade' due to the Japanese Asset Price Bubble collapse. This phase saw Japan run massive budget deficits in order to finance the huge spending programs of the...
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...QUANTITATIVE EASING: A RATIONALE AND SOME EVIDENCE FROM JAPAN This paper was prepared for the NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2009. Volker Wieland thanks the European Central Bank for support as Duisenberg Research Fellow while the initial presentation for the ISOM conference in June 2009 in Cyprus was prepared. The help of Alberto Musso from the European Central Bank in collecting data on Japan is gratefully acknowledged. Helpful comments by conference participants, and in particular by Huw Pill, Vincent Reinhart, Frank Smets, Christian Thimann and Athanasios Orphanides were highly appreciated. The usual disclaimer applies. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2009 by Volker Wieland. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Quantitative Easing: A Rationale and Some Evidence from Japan Volker Wieland NBER Working Paper No. 15565 December 2009 JEL No. E31,E52,E58,E61 ABSTRACT This paper reviews the rationale for quantitative easing when central bank policy rates reach near zero levels in light of recent...
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...Japan’s tough economic development of the 1980s ended at the start of the 1990s. At the end of 1980s, irregularities inside the Japanese economic organization had qualified a hypothetical asset price bubble of massive scale by Japanese enterprises, banks and securities corporations. The mixture of extremely high land prices and low interest rates temporarily caused sharp liquidity of the market. This led to enormous borrowing and strong investment mainly in domestic and global stocks and securities. Realizing that this bubble was unsupportable, the Finance Ministry of JAPAN precisely increased interest rates in late 1980’s. This severe course of action metaphorically bursted the bubble, and the JSE (Japan stock exchange) market collided. A debt crisis trailed and the Japanese banks and insurances were now burdened with uncollectable bills, uncollectable loans and had to write off many debts as bad debts. The financial associations were bailed out from the government, credits from the reserve bank or known as central bank and the ability to delay the acknowledgement of losses, eventually turning them into the banks whose net worth is less than or so called Zombie banks. Zombie banks are considered to be one of the important causes for the Japan economic stagnation. Michael Schuman ( Asia business correspondent for Time Magazine ) said that Japan's economy would not have started to improve until this practice had terminated, he also indicated that these banks kept inserting more...
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...In the Oct. 28-29 FOMC meeting, the committee is expected to make decisions on the continuity of its asset repurchase program and the federal funds rate. Fed Chair Yellen should present the fact that in Q3, the economy has continued to grow at 4% rate. And that unemployment rate has dropped to a low 5.9%. These positive signals indicate a healthy economy moving towards maximum employment and price stability. Chair Yellen should first confirm that the current $5 billion asset repurchase program will end by the end of the year. And second, should present the expected economic progress and determine for how long ZIRP will be maintained. It is also important for Chair Yellen to discuss how the Fed is going to protect the economy from future potential recessions especially by discussing these three points: 1. Progress report on the Dodd-Frank act, how to expedite and simply the rulemaking process. 1. TBTF banks are a risk to financial stability. A plan must be put in place to decrease their size so that failure becomes an acceptable option. 2. The Fed should move towards a data-driven organization. Using the Taylor rule to set its federal funds rate will remove any second guessing. 1. What is the current economic situation and how did we get here? Give your policy recommendation with some detail, including ideas on the timing and details of normalizing policy, including exit tools. The U.S. economy is recovering from the deepest recession since the Great Depression...
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...Quantitative Easing: Entrance and Exit Strategies by Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University CEPS Working Paper No. 204 March 2010 Acknowledgements: Paper prepared for the Homer Jones Memorial Lecture at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, April 1, 2010. I am grateful to Gauti Eggertsson, Todd Keister, Jamie McAndrews, Paul Mizen, John Taylor, Alexander Wolman, and Michael Woodford for extremely useful comments on an earlier draft, and to Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies for research support. Apparently, it can happen here. On December 16, 2008, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), in an effort to fight what was shaping up to be the worst recession since 1937, reduced the federal funds rate to nearly zero. 1 From then on, with all of its conventional ammunition spent, the Federal Reserve was squarely in the brave new world of quantitative easing. Chairman Ben Bernanke tried to call the Fed’s new policies “credit easing,” probably to differentiate them from what the Bank of Japan had done earlier in the decade, but the label did not stick. 2 Roughly speaking, quantitative easing refers to changes in the composition and/or size of the central bank’s balance sheet that are designed to ease liquidity and/or credit conditions. Presumably, reversing these policies constitutes “quantitative tightening,” but nobody seems to use that terminology. The discussion refers instead to the “exit strategy,” indicating that quantitative easing (“QE”) is looked upon as...
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...news that European Central Bank announcement that it will keep its benchmark interest rate at 1% and it is raising the inflation projection. Moreover, the private bondholders are expected to agree to Greek debt swaps that should keep the country from a hard default. Another reason for the selection of euro is the latest decision by the Bank of England not to increase the bond purchases as bond purchases means outflow of money that leads to trade deficit and depreciation of Euro (TopForexNews.com, 2012). Furthermore, the reason I chose Great Britain pound was due to the appreciation of UK pound against the US dollar based on the latest interest rate decision by the Bank of England to keep it the same as well as to keep its debt-purchase program on hold for the time being (TopForexNews.com, 2012 ). Discussion 14 March 2012 For the first week of trading, I am only allowed to buy the currencies. The Japanese yen is expected to fall when the European finance ministers agreed to provide a bailout for Greece and on...
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...Introduction: On the 2009 Forbes most powerful people’s list the top places namely , 3rd ,4th and the 5th were occupied by the central bankers Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Masaaki Shirakawa of the Bank of Japan respectively throwing the political leaders of some of the most powerful nations behind them. Why they were considered powerful? Well, the year 2009 has its own prominence from the economic prospective. Recession was at its peak, inflation was making some of the powerful nations of the world shaky, stock markets plummeted and there were many more such economic drawbacks that were evidenced during this year. These slowed down many economies and even were the reasons for the fall of some of the developed nations. Nations were suffering with a deficit in money and assets. Some of the huge scale banks collapsed. Almost all of the sectors got affected. Even some famous companies went bankrupt. The economic policies run by the political leaders run on the wheels of the policing by the bankers. In the world that existed before the financial crisis, central bankers were triumphant. They had defeated inflation and tamed the business cycle. And they had developed a powerful intellectual consensus on how to do their job, summarized recently by David Blanch flower, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, as “one tool, one target”. The tool was the short-term interest rate, the...
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Cover Page 2 Table of Contents 3 1. Introduction 4 2.1. Expansionary Monetary Policy 5 2.2. Contractionary Monetary Policy 6 2. Overview of the United States Monetary Policy 7 2.1 Overview of Recent United States Monetary Policy 8 3. Recent (2011) Direction of Monetary Policy 10 4. Market Reaction to Monetary Policy 12 5. Conclusion 15 6. Reference List 16 1.0 Introduction In macroeconomics, monetary policy is an importance tool to Central Bank and is a policy set by the members of Central Bank. It is an economic strategy chosen by government that authorizes Central Bank to regulate and influence the economic activity by controlling the monetary base flow into national economy. The goals of monetary policy are to promote growth of the economy, stability of prices and reduce unemployment rate. Monetary policy can be classified into two categories, namely expansionary monetary policy and contractionary monetary policy. Although, the objective for the two policies is the same, they adopt different approaches in reaching this objective. Expansionary monetary policy is used when a country is facing a recession in the economy business cycle, whereby it increases the money supply in economy system...
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...combined with ongoing concerns about deflation risks, has made comparisons with Japan’s so-called “lost decades” Top of Mind. We ask three experts whether the Euro area is set to repeat Japan’s prolonged period of stagnation and deflation: former BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa (unclear, but Euro area recovery requires addressing the underlying problem of economic integration and not its symptom, deflation), GS Chief European Economist Huw Pill (low growth and even some deflation similar to Japan, in terms of outcome if not in terms of causes, are likely in the short term, but – also akin to Japan – a deflationary spiral is not), and LSE Professor Paul De Grauwe (there is a real risk of this outcome or worse unless policies change). We conclude that Euro area economies and assets could escape Japan’s fate but warn that Euro area stagnation would have a greater impact on the global economy than did Japan’s. Inside Interview with Masaaki Shirakawa Former Governor of the Bank of Japan 4 Headed for Japanese-style deflation? Silvia Ardagna, GS Rates Strategy 6 Interview with Huw Pill GS Chief European Economist 8 Euro area stagnation and its discontents Jose Ursua, GS Global Economics Research 10 Interview with Paul De Grauwe Professor, London School of Economics 14 European equities: a different story Sharon Bell, GS Portfolio Strategy 16 A look back at Japan’s deflation drivers Naohiko Baba, GS Japan Economics 18 Source: www.istockphoto...
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...Japan economy remains mired in recession despite attempts by Government to stimulate economic growth over years. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is not as great as it was before asset-price bubble. The monetary measures implemented by Japan new government to solves two-decades of sluggish growth has been brought up to G20 meeting at Moscow on February 2013, to determine on its compatibility with G20 agreement. It has been endorsed by G20 communities for its important role in global economy. Economist anticipated recovery would be slow as deflation has raged in Japan for near to two-decades. This paper examines the deflation issues in Japan; to shed some lights on the causes of deflation and several issues arises from prolonged deflation. Lastly, new stimulus package to expand economy will be highlighted. The effectiveness and potential side effects of policy will be discussed. Deflation, which was not a serious monetary issue has entrenched and gained attention globally for its prolonged effects in Japan. (Bernanke 2003). According to Blink and Dorton (2007), deflation occurs when average price level has generally declined. Deflation refers to situation where inflation rate falls below zero zones. It is categorized into two board explanation. “Good” deflation finds it source from improvement on supply side of economy. As figure (1) refers, increased Aggregate Supply (AS) will increase the real output and leads to decline in price level. “Bad” deflation results from...
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...What are the trends in growth, inflation, unemployment, and debt? Over the last ten years Japan had a tremendous growth. It is no surprise for a country like Japan to have an increase in GDP among the last ten years; it had a GDP of $4.3 trillion in 2004 and kept increasing till it reached $5.96 trillion in the end of 2013 (Trading Economics, 2013). This significant increase in in the GDP is due to the increase in the net exports, since nowadays Japan is known as the world’s second largest developed economy. Japan exports a lot of automobiles because it is one of the leading countries in the production of automobiles that are spread all over the world. Moreover, Japan is the largest creditor nation while running an annual trade surplus. The GDP per capita increased from $29369.49 in 2004 to $31425.49 in 2013 (Trading Economics, 2013) meaning that the economy is vigorous since people are earning more so they have more disposable income to spend which vitalities the economy and the services thus leading the economy to thrive. All these conditions led the growth rare to increase from 0.1% in 2004 to 0.3% in 2013 (Trading Economics), however it is still considered low since it only increase 0.2%. In general we can come to a conclusion that the Japanese economy is healthy and is experiencing a positive growth. Since we already know that the economy in Japan is booming it would be rational to say that there are new opportunities for new positions in the market, the demand for workers...
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