PRINTING MONEY….Ben Bernanke says the Fed still has “powerful tools” at its disposal to fight the recession even though interest rates are already down to zero. Felix Salmon is unimpressed:
The natural response to this is simple: if you still have powerful tools at your disposal, why haven’t you used them already? And why did you enact that final rate cut to zero, which necessarily comes accompanied by all manner of nasty consequences in the repo markets and at money-market funds? That decision certainly made it seem as though the Fed believes a marginal further reduction in the Fed funds rate is still far more effective than any of its other policies.
If I had to guess, I’d say that Bernanke believes there’s a price to be paid for taking extraordinary measures, and it’s a price he’d rather not pay unless he absolutely has to. Printing money may be within his authority, but there’s no surer way of admitting that literally everything else has failed and you’re now on your last legs. I don’t blame him for not wanting to go there if there’s even the slightest chance he doesn’t have to.
