End of an era…
After a year long phasing down period, last night the US Federal Reserve finally ended its quantitative easing (QE) program, introduced at the height of the Global Financial Crisis back in 2008.
Since the worst days of the GFC, unemployment has fallen, consumers are spending again, businesses are investing and banks are lending. So after all is said and done, QE seems to have actually worked - the US economy is now well and truly into expansion mode and looking a lot stronger than Europe and Japan that have taken longer to adopt QE.
It would be fair to say that, while the US economy isn't exactly booming, the Fed Reserve's decision to take the economy off life-support was, at least for now, an important sign that the US may now be able to finally stand on its own two feet.
While the punch-bowl may have been removed from the table, the music continues to play. Consistent with the Fed Reserve's softly, softly approach, they've also indicated that interest rates won't be going up in a hurry, even as the US economy continues to recover - an encouraging signal to the US (and the rest of the world) that concrete evidence of a sustainable recovery will be needed before interest rates are finally raised in earnest.
The ending of US QE is also a positive for Australia and removes a source of upwards pressure on the Australian dollar (great for exporters).
Rick Maggi
Westmount I Financial Solutions
Since the worst days of the GFC, unemployment has fallen, consumers are spending again, businesses are investing and banks are lending. So after all is said and done, QE seems to have actually worked - the US economy is now well and truly into expansion mode and looking a lot stronger than Europe and Japan that have taken longer to adopt QE.
It would be fair to say that, while the US economy isn't exactly booming, the Fed Reserve's decision to take the economy off life-support was, at least for now, an important sign that the US may now be able to finally stand on its own two feet.
While the punch-bowl may have been removed from the table, the music continues to play. Consistent with the Fed Reserve's softly, softly approach, they've also indicated that interest rates won't be going up in a hurry, even as the US economy continues to recover - an encouraging signal to the US (and the rest of the world) that concrete evidence of a sustainable recovery will be needed before interest rates are finally raised in earnest.
The ending of US QE is also a positive for Australia and removes a source of upwards pressure on the Australian dollar (great for exporters).
Rick Maggi Westmount I Financial Solutions