What the Fed Can Do: Print and Buy, Buy, Buy

by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds

Everyone with a pension fund or 401K invested in stocks better hope the Fed becomes the buyer of last resort, and soon.

Much has been written about what the Federal Reserve cannot do: it can’t stop the Covid-19 pandemic or reverse the economic damage unleashed by the pandemic.

But let’s not overlook what the Fed can do: create U.S. dollars out of thin air and use these dollars to buy assets either directly or through proxies.

Let’s also not overlook how much the Fed can print/buy. The Fed’s balance sheet currently stands at $4.24 trillion. Doubling this to $8.5 trillion would bring the balance sheet to 39% of U.S. GDP ($22 trillion) and 7.5% of total U.S. household assets ($113 trillion). In the context of GDP and household assets, doubling the balance sheet would be extraordinary but not destabilizing.

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