{
  "id": "R42962",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R42962",
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  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
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      "id": 429572,
      "date": "2014-02-06",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T23:08:06.117252",
      "title": "Federal Reserve: Unconventional Monetary Policy Options",
      "summary": "The Great Recession and the ensuing weak recovery have led the Federal Reserve (Fed) to expand its monetary policy tools. Since December 2008, overnight interest rates have been near zero; at this zero bound, they cannot be lowered further to stimulate the economy. As a result, the Fed has taken unprecedented policy steps to try to fulfill its statutory mandate of maximum employment and price stability. Congress has oversight responsibilities for ensuring that the Feds actions are consistent with its mandate.\nThe Fed has made large-scale asset purchases, popularly referred to as quantitative easing (QE), that have increased the size of its balance sheet from $0.9 trillion in 2007 to about $4 trillion at the end of 2013. In September 2012, the Fed began a third round of monthly purchases of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), referred to as quantitative easing three or QEIII. Unlike the previous rounds, the Fed has not announced when QEIII will end or its ultimate size. In December 2013, the Fed began tapering off its asset purchases, and announced in January 2014 that it would purchase $30 billion of MBS and $35 billion of Treasury securities per month. The Fed views QE as stimulating the economy primarily through lower long-term interest rates, which stimulate spending on business investment, residential investment, and consumer durables. Since QE began, Treasury yields and mortgage rates have reached their lowest levels in decades; it is less clear how much QE has affected private-borrowing rates and interest-sensitive spending. Critics fear QEs potentially inflationary effects, via growth in the monetary base. Inflation has remained low to date, but QE is unprecedented in the United States and the Feds mooted exit strategy for unwinding QE is untested, so the Feds ability to successfully maintain stable prices while unwinding QE is uncertain, as are potential unintended consequences.\nThe Fed has also changed its communication policies since rates reached the zero bound. From 2011 to 2012, it announced a specific date for how long it anticipated that the federal funds rate would be at exceptionally low levels, and over time incrementally extended that horizon by two years. In December 2012, it replaced the time horizon with an unemployment threshold. It now anticipates that the federal funds rate would be exceptionally low well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5%, provided inflation remains low. The Fed argues that its new communication policies make its federal funds target more stimulative today. In this view, if financial actors are confident that short-term rates will be low for an extended period of time, then long-term rates will be driven down today, thereby stimulating interest-sensitive spending. Uncertainty about economic projections hampers the Feds ability to stick to a preannounced policy path, and repeatedly moving the goal posts on when it will raise rates could undermine its credibility. If unconventional policy were failing because it has undermined the Feds credibility, the evidence would be high interest rates, high inflation expectations, or both; to date, neither has occurred.\nThe sluggish rate of economic recovery suggests that unconventional monetary policy alone is not powerful enough to return the economy to full employment quickly after a severe downturn and financial crisis. It also raises questions about the optimal approach to monetary policy. The economic recovery is now well established, but inflation was below the Feds goal of 2% in 2013. The Fed officials who set interest rates project that the unemployment rate will be at or near full employment in 2015, but most do not believe it would be appropriate to raise the federal funds rate above zero before then. Although many perceived risks of unconventional policy have not been realized to date, risks may intensify as the economy nears full employment.",
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    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc817452/",
      "id": "R42962_2013Feb19",
      "date": "2013-02-19",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "Federal Reserve: Unconventional Monetary Policy Options",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
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  ],
  "topics": [
    "Economic Policy"
  ]
}