Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Fed prepares for QY: Quantitative yakking

Fed prepares for QY: Quantitative yakking -- The Buzz - Dec. 12, 2011
With the benchmark 10-year Treasury already yielding just 2%, some think the Fed's only weapons left to keep rates low are words.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Federal Reserve has pretty much pulled out all the stops to try and keep the U.S. (and some would argue global) economy from collapsing.

Interest rates left near zero for three years? Check. Two big rounds of so-called quantitative easing, buying long-term Treasury bonds to push rates lower? Been there. Done that.

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Selling short-term bonds to buy even more long-term Treasuries, orOperation Twist? Already taken care of. Flooding the financial markets with cheap dollars to keep European banks from a credit crunch? One step ahead of you.

At this point, there is little left for the Fed to do other than talk about how it should be talking about the markets and economy. The central bank's policy committee gets together Tuesday, and the only news of note that might come from the meeting are possible changes to the Fed's communications strategy.

Call it QY: Quantitative yakking.

According to the minutes of the Fed's last meeting in early November, policymakers discussed "potential approaches for enhancing the clarity of their public communications." That could include specific targets for inflation and more details about when the Fed may change interest rates.

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