Quantitative easing
Michael Woodford backs combining nominal GDP and inflation target
Leading monetary policy theorist advocates immediate fiscal transfer to the public, funded by central bank purchase of government debt, coupled with adoption of nominal GDP target
Bernanke denies QE represents competitive devaluation
Fed chairman plays down effect of asset purchases on exchange rates and emerging markets; Axel Weber says countries can lean against QE if necessary, but highlights more serious flaws
Fed pays $88bn in profits to US Treasury
Federal Reserve makes large profit on securities holdings in 2012; follows warnings from Ben Bernanke and Fed researchers that remittances are not likely to remain elevated
BoE asset purchases sit on knife-edge
Bank of England rejects further asset purchases in what is assumed to be a ‘close call’; UK finance minister could alter MPC remit in upcoming budget
Philadelphia Fed president demands end to QE
Charles Plosser says asset purchases should be phased out gradually and halted before the end of the year; ‘meagre benefits’ are outweighed by threat to price stability
Yellen says monetary easing needed to support labour market
Federal Reserve vice-chair says labour market should take centre stage in Fed’s monetary policy; does not believe asset purchases are threatening financial stability
Japan’s Kuroda signals ‘substantive step change’ in fight against deflation
Haruhiko Kuroda, nominated as the next Bank of Japan governor, says the central bank is not doing enough to stimulate inflation
Bernanke commits to continuing asset purchases
Fed chairman says benefits of ongoing monetary policy stimulus are clear; urges US government to delay bulk of impending spending cuts
BoE’s Fisher sees longer horizon for asset purchases
MPC member Paul Fisher says Bank of England should consider switching to a more gradual pace of asset purchases over a longer period of time
BIS paper urges policy-makers to consider co-ordinated bond strategy
Research finds effective response to a bond market crisis has become more difficult due to heavily laden central bank balance sheets, raising the need to better co-ordinate a crisis framework
Fed’s Powell and Rosengren hit back at ‘fiscal crunch’ research paper
Research suggests Fed is constrained by precarious US finances, but Fed governor and president offer alternative conclusions
BoE MPC member makes case for more stimulus
David Miles presents model that suggests monetary policy is probably still too tight in the UK; says more QE would be one way to address this, but other easing strategies could also work
FOMC members 'undecided' over further asset purchases
Federal Open Market Committee displays more uncertainty over when to halt asset purchase programme; wary of buying more securities but scared of ending purchases too soon
UK statistics office explains QE impact on national debt
ONS attempts to clarify accounting practices used in transferring cash reserves from Bank of England’s quantitative easing programme to the Treasury
Bank of Finland paper urges QE use outside crises
Analysis based on DSGE model finds asset purchases are a useful monetary policy tool in all states of the economy, but should be co-ordinated with conventional interest rate policy
Bullard slams Fed’s 2012 policy
St Louis Fed president criticises ‘relatively weak’ Federal Reserve policy in 2012, but says new measures have now stepped easing up a gear
Former BoE MPC members divided on ‘maxed out’ easing
John Gieve, Charles Goodhart and Andrew Sentance disagree on whether the Bank of England has more scope to ease policy; Gieve says action at next meeting is likely
Fears over BoJ independence as central bank bows to government
Commentators express concerns over the Bank of Japan’s independence as the central bank introduces 2% inflation target and open-ended asset purchases
NY Fed research plays down QE impact on emerging markets
Staff report says large-scale asset purchases have a relatively small impact on capital flows to emerging economies in the aggregate, but finds substantial variation between countries
BoE MPC member questions efficacy of more QE
Ian McCafferty, an external Monetary Policy Committee member, says more monetary stimulus may not boost demand as much as earlier efforts
BoJ’s Shirai hints deflation is partly out of the central bank’s hands
Sayuri Shirai says conquering deflation depends partly on demographic change, red tape and weak growth expectations, which the Bank of Japan has limited influence over
Fed’s Lacker issues warning on bloated balance sheet
Jeffrey Lacker says latest round of quantitative easing is unlikely to give a significant boost to the economy and will ‘test the limits of our credibility’
Krugman adds lustre to $1 trillion coin plan
Proposal to mint a $1 trillion coin to avoid 'fiscal cliff' in US wins Krugman backing and Republican opposition
Fed could stop asset purchases ‘well before end of 2013’
FOMC members express concerns over costs of quantitative easing as the Fed’s balance sheet expands; most members see purchases ending within a year