> "Edit: It was during the Obama administration but implemented by the Fed, which is independent of the White House administration (thank god.)"

I was half-listening to Jerome Powell (Fed Chairman) testify before congress today and one congresswoman (CW) asked him (JP) something like:

CW: Are there any tools you need that we can give you?

JP: No, we have all the tools we need at the moment.

CW: Well what about directly purchasing municipal bonds? I learned you aren't allowed to do that.

JP: That type of activity is outside the scope of our mandate.

CW: Well there are many cities going bankrupt that need someone to buy the bonds so if we give you the power to do that will it help if you can buy them?

JP: The best thing you can do to help is have a sane fiscal policy and reduce the deficits.

> Very much not true.

> was a core tenet of the Obama administration’s response

Quantitative easing is a monetary policy, not fiscal policy. A central bank dictates monetary policy. An administration dictates fiscal policy.

Would recommend you read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

That's because interest rates were already at zero. Look over to what BOJ did - they straight up bought equity ETFs as a part of their qe, even more hardcore. Still, not much inflation!

>> Very much not true

?? The parent comment is correct that about the 'actual minting of money' not being a huge factor, in the sense of printing dollars and coins. Quantitative easing increases the money supply, but not via physically printing money.