Fed Has Aided Stocks, Not Rates or Jobs: CNBC Survey
By: The Federal Reserve’s policy to purchase $600 billion of bonds in a program widely known as QE2 has been mostly ineffective at lowering interest rates and will do little to improve the unemployment rate, according to the exclusive CNBC Fed Survey in December.
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Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke
The survey of 76 economists, bond and stock traders, and analysts, found 63 percent saying the Fed’s program has been ineffective at lowering interest rates.
A similar percentage believes the program will not help lower the unemployment rate.
“I see QE2 as mainly pushing on a string,” wrote Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
But respondents to the survey say the Fed program has played an important part in raising stock and commodity prices.
The Federal Reserve’s $600 billion stimulus program has done little to lower interest rates and or improve unemployment, though it has boosted stock and commodity prices, a CNBC survey says.
