AFP
July 1, 2011
NEW YORK – The US Federal Reserve wound up its $600-billion “QE2” program to boost the ailing economy with easy liquidity on Thursday, having generated more controversy than jobs and growth.
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Without fanfare the US central bank’s New York branch paid banks $4.9 billion for US Treasury bonds in the program’s last step Thursday morning, as economists and bankers continued to argue its effect.
Critics of the Fed’s second “quantitative easing” program — hence QE2 — say it fueled surging food and fuel prices, pumped up asset bubbles in emerging economies like China and Brazil, and devalued the dollar.
Even sympathizers say it didn’t have much impact, noting that US employment remains stubbornly high at 9.1 percent and growth remains depressed.
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