Bernanke’s Actions Likely to be a ‘Once Off’

As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke shuts the door to his office for a final time in two days, he can say he took actions that were the first or the biggest of their kind in the central bank’s 100-year history. Some will probably also be the last.

Bernanke was the first to devise a monetary policy that focused on lowering credit costs by suppressing longer-term interest rates after the short-term policy rate hit zero. His strategy, involving direct purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities and longer-term Treasury debt, left the Fed with the biggest balance sheet in its history, $4.1 trillion.

He was the first chairman since the Great Depression to use emergency lending powers to rescue businesses in almost every corner of the financial system — from banks, to corporations, to bond dealers. And he might be the last: Congress, leery of the Fed’s sweeping powers, removed the central bank’s ability to loan to individuals, partnerships and non-bank companies.

Bloomberg

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