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  5. Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond

  • Kenneth N. Kuttner
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 32, no. 4, Fall 2018
(pp. 121–46)
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Abstract

In November 2008, the Federal Reserve faced a deteriorating economy and a financial crisis. The federal funds rate had already been reduced to virtually zero. Thus, the Federal Reserve turned to unconventional monetary policies. Through "quantitative easing," the Fed announced plans to buy mortgage-backed securities and debt issued by government-sponsored enterprises. Subsequent purchases would eventually lead to a five-fold expansion in the Fed's balance sheet, from $900 billion to $4.5 trillion, and leave the Fed holding over 20 percent of all mortgage-backed securities and marketable Treasury debt. In addition, Fed policy statements in December 2008 began to include explicit references to the likely path of the federal funds interest rate, a policy that came to be known as "forward guidance." The Fed ceased its direct asset purchases in late 2014. Starting in October 2017, it has allowed the balance sheet to shrink gradually as existing assets mature. From December 2015 through June 2018, the Fed has raised the federal funds interest rate seven times. Thus, the time is ripe to step back and ask whether the Fed's unconventional policies had the intended expansionary effects—and by extension, whether the Fed should use them in the future.

Citation

Kuttner, Kenneth N. 2018. "Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32 (4): 121–46. DOI: 10.1257/jep.32.4.121

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
  • E44 Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
  • E51 Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
  • E52 Monetary Policy
  • E63 Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy
  • H63 National Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt
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