I don't think QE had anything at all to do with unemployment, or hiring in any regard whatsoever. Nothing. Zip. I think we saw a bump in the unemployment rate because people finally fell off the 99er bullshit and the stat bumped. People didn't get hired all of a sudden. One should look at the employed as a percent of the population - a more reliable number - than the BLS's hilariously bullshit number. QE's sole purpose was to drive up asset prices. Bernanke even said so himself, though he was referring to the stock market - not all asset classes. At the end of the day, you can't prime pump one without the other.
this is a great question. the answer is hubris and arrogance. a one sentence answer is the people elected a government which was going to revoke the business cycle while maintaining price stability. the US is ending with neither but a broken economy.
It's all a balancing act. If you drain excess money in timely manner, then ok. Need QE3 to keep confidence up and buy time until the economy reaches escape velocity.
yes, somehow even respectable economists think QE2 somehow helped employment which is clearly wrong so no wonder crowd on ET thinks it helps but what it does it clearly helps assets prices but that comes from dollar weakness look at emerging markets with strong currencies like bovespa - sell off started several months ago so definetely QE doesn't work but it's all they know - through the last 25 years we were taught - return to normalcy is not allowed. They will print and print and print hoping for a miracle till the final crash (dollar crash of course, stocks in nominal terms will fly)
QE1 and QE2 and the rest of the worthless dollars that went to propping up asset prices were to create a wealth effect and nothing more, anyone who is actually foolish enough to believe stimulus is going to turn around this economy is a complete idiot! The stimulus which inflated equity prices creates a wealth effect for the extreme upper class, I dont think the 45 million + people in poverty here in the US benefited from higher stock prices because they dont even know what a stock is. The middle working class had to sell most of their 401k to live as they searched for a job so it didn't benefit them as housing prices continued to drop in value. Now shift to the rich and wealthy, those who own stocks and feel a bit of comfort after the markets rally 10%, 20% and 100% in 2 years. They are the ones that made out from the stimulus plans and injection of QE1 and QE2 into the markets. The rich and wealthy are the ones who saw their networth actually increase in the last few years as the middle working class and poverty classes have suffered! QE3 will do absolutely nothing, but prop up stock prices and create inflation which will do even more harm to this fragile economy, fuck QE3, anyone hoping for QE3 are the longs worried that if nothing is done soon stocks are going to go down even further. BUBBLE ben bernanke is really fucking this economy up, but everyone seems to ignore it just like everything else until its too late and everything comes collapsing down just like it did in 2007 at the start of the financial crisis that is still here today.
You have no clue what you're talking about, QE3 is all HOT AIR and obviously NOT a confidence builder, nothing else. Please go back to school and learn something before posting ignorant, erroneous facts.