Inflation Is Still the Fed’s Game

No matter how many media commentators may repeat the phrase “Federal Reserve tightening” of monetary policy, supposedly to bring down inflation, there is no such tightening going on. The Fed lowered its QE securities buying to “only” $90 billion in December by aggressively printing money for the big banks for three weeks, then selling off some Treasury and mortgage-backed securities in the last week of the month. Now in January, when it is supposed to drop again to $60 billion in new securities purchases, its holding of those securities has actually increased by $87 billion in the first three weeks of the month, surging its assets well past $8.9 trillion. There has been no significant rise in long-term interest rates in response to the Fed’s promise of rate increases coming during 2022.