Why QE ?
By QE, the Fed increased the money supply to stimulate the aggregate demand in 2020 and 2021.
$$ Y=C+I+G+NX $$
By QE, more money were dumped into the economy. Two mainly used methods are (1) helicopter drops, and (2) banks/firms repo and CB reverse repo.
What happens after QE ?
- 1. Individuals got the more money in hands (mainly from Helicopter Drops in 2020) — Consumption increased. In the U.S., people who had SSN and were taxed a year before a certain time point were assured an opportunity of helicopter drops. Those money were highly likely ( and it really is) to transform to real demands in the market, because of the consumption habit in the U.S.
The Fed printed extra money and dumped into the economy. People spent those extra money to buy goods and service. Less Goods and Services were produced domestically in the U.S., while most of them were imported from Mexico, India, Russia, China, Mideast, etc. That is what I discussed before. The U.S. printed money (, which are worthless), and use “nothing” to reap goods and services from all over the world.
The above is one fact. Another is that there are still too much of money in the economy. Too much money chased too little goods. Like Milton Fridman said “Inflation is nothing but a monetary phenomenon”. There were no enough outputs (aggregate supply) to meet the increase in aggregate demand resulted from QE, then inflation surged.
- 2. Increase in supply of money dragged the interest rate down and thus reduced the financial cost for firms. Investment increased. This case is a bit different. In China, the CB conducted also QE to stimulate the economy especially in the current situation. However, the CB’s conduction is mainly through the Banking System. In this case, money are mainly poured into firms through loans not to individuals. Individuals are hardly able to get low-cost money because on the one hand them may not have enough pledges, and on the other hand people are fear to invest in the real estate, coz the real estate bubbles are in the edge of collapse although the gov is trying to keep the mkt stable.
Pros and Cons are there. Advantages are (1) firms that got the low-cost money are most likely state owned firms. In this case, there are “relative high probability” of safety. (2) firms encounter low financial cost and could have direct impact on infrastructures. Disadvantages are also that (1) money could not be directly given to individuals, no real happiness or utility increase for those family. Family based businesses are still suffering the plunges in demands and undergo bankruptcy. (2) too much money chase too little high-quality assets that can have potential positive expected return or payoffs. Money circulates in the economy, and costs circulates as well to increase. On the one hand there is low efficiency, on the other hand extra money does not contribute to stimulate the economy. Financial System discoodinates.