The explosion of the monetary base is mentioned prominently.
Notice only 13 of the 54 cited the Fed as the prime reason for avoiding disaster.
And no one speculates on what would have happened if the Fed did NOT buy securities.
As I told my students when this began,
"You won't get Summer jobs, your parents savings and home equity are gone, and your grandparents will die hungry in a cold, dark world."
If not for the Fed, this would have happened in 2009.
Thanks to the Fed, we have a roaring recovery.
If you see Bernanke, please make sure to thank him for me, too.
* * * * * J B K * * * * *
San Francisco
But the Fed's interventions likely played a bigger role in pulling the economy out of its tailspin, economists said. In their paper, Messrs. Sinai and Edelstein estimated that the Fed's actions boosted GDP growth by 1.9 percentage points in 2009 and would add 3.3 points this year.
The survey respondents broadly agreed. When asked which government policies played the biggest role in resuscitating the U.S. economy, 25 respondents chose low interest rates and 13 said it was the central bank's purchases of Treasurys and mortgages. Eight cited the bank stress tests and related capital-raising by banks. Just three said the stimulus played the biggest role.
