Bernanke defends $600B bond purchase to stimulate economy

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke defended the central bank’s decision to start a new bond-buying program Thursday in an unusual op-ed in The Washington Post, arguing that the benefits from the plan were already being felt in the economy and concerns it would foster inflation were overstated.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted Wednesday to buy an additional $600 billion in Treasury securities over the next eight months.

In his op-ed, Bernanke said this approach “looks to be effective” already because stock prices rose and long-term interest rates fell when investors realized the Fed was preparing to launch the new program, dubbed quantitative easing.

Global markets rallied Thursday following the Fed move, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 140 points in early trading.

“Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth,” Bernanke said, adding that worries that the asset purchases would lead to inflation were overstated.

The Fed’s first round of quantitative easing, in which the central bank purchased $1.7 trillion of mostly housing-related assets, did not result in higher inflation, he said.

The Fed remains committed to price stability and is confident it can engineer an exit strategy at the appropriate time.

Economists at Goldman Sachs called Bernanke’s op-ed a “forceful justification” of the quantitative easing program. Bernanke did not mention the impact of quantitative easing on the dollar, the Goldman team noted, “probably because he does not want to be seen — either by the Treasury, which is responsible for dollar policy, or by foreign policymakers — as pursuing an overtly weak dollar policy.”

Bernanke said the Fed could not solve all the economy’s problem on its own.

“That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators and the private sector,” he said.

But the Fed “could hardly be satisfied” with an unemployment rate near 10 percent and an inflation rate running under two percent and decided “further support was needed.”

To read more, go to MarketWatch.com.