Heartland Institute Responds to
Fed Plan to Buy Mortgages in Effort to Lower Rates
Today the Federal Reserve fulfilled expectations of more stimulus for the faltering economy, aiming to drive down mortgage rates until the unemployment rate improves. The following statements from experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/731-9364.
“The move signals near panic at the Federal Reserve. The Fed hopes people who got burned by too much debt and a housing bubble will borrow more money to start a new bubble. They must be delusional.
“Also, the Fed policy harshly punishes savers, conservative investors, and people who live on fixed incomes, because they earn virtually nothing on their money. Millions of people who don’t know how or don’t want to play the Fed’s market manipulation games are being harmed.”
Steve Stanek
Research Fellow, Budget and Tax Policy
The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Budget & Tax News
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“The dollar lost at least another 1 percent of its value right after Bernanke’s announcement, which will not benefit the economy. There’s nothing in this announcement that would encourage banks to lend money to small-business job-creators, nor for big companies to invest in more output and create jobs. The stock market is happy because they expect this to push up the dollar values of their stocks, but the Fed’s action is just going to do more harm to an already fragile U.S. economy.”
S.T. Karnick
Director of Research
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-400
The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
