Would one of you TDS suffering fools please explain Quantitative Easing (QE) to me?
QE is an effort of diminishing returns which attempts to monetize the debt to keep interest rates low as a means to bail out zombie banks and punish savers.
What is "monetizing the debt"? What does that mean?
The central bank may purchase government bonds by conducting an open market purchase, i.e. by increasing the monetary base through the money creation process. If government bonds that have come due are held by the central bank, the central bank will return any funds paid to it back to the treasury. Thus, the treasury may 'borrow' money without needing to repay it. This process of financing government spending is called 'monetizing the debt'.[1]
Central banks are usually forbidden by law from purchasing debt directly from the government. For example, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (article 123) expressly forbids EU central banks' direct purchase of debt of EU public bodies such as national governments. Their debt purchases have to be from the secondary markets. Monetizing debt is thus a two-step process where the government issues debt to finance its spending and the central bank purchases the debt, holding it until it comes due, and leaving the system with an increased supply of money.
Clearly we are already "just printing money" and have been doing so or a very long time.
But now that Trump says it, it suddenly a "bad thing".
This is TDS- Trump Derangement Syndrome.