Americans for Limited Government on QE2

I just received this message from Americans for Limited Government's Robert Romano.


ALG Statement on Fed Purchase of $600 Billion of Treasuries


November 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning the Federal Reserve's planned purchase of $600 billion of treasuries over the next eight months:

"The Federal Reserve's reckless program to purchase $600 billion of treasuries over the next eight months is taking the U.S. into uncharted waters, where the nation's central bank will be the largest holder of the national debt in the entire world next year. The Fed already holds $834 billion of treasuries, and was already on pace to have over $1 trillion in treasuries by August, 2011, more than China, Japan, or any other foreign creditor.

"With another $600 billion on top of the Fed's expected trillion-dollar stake in the debt, the signal we are sending to the world is that to pay for our obligations is to print a ton of new money. In the next three years alone, $5.2 trillion of debt will be coming due. In addition, the Obama Administration plans on increasing the debt another $3.6 trillion over that same period. That means that the Treasury has to sell $8.8 trillion of debt over three years, or $2.93 trillion every year.

"$2.93 trillion a year is more than the Treasury has ever had to sell. Approximately $630 billion more than it has ever sold. So it is little surprise that now the Fed is coming out saying it is buying another $600 billion of treasuries. This action by the Fed has nothing to do with 'a stronger pace of economic recovery,' as the central bank claims. It has everything to do with the fact that we are broke, and we're printing money to pay the bills.

"It is up to the newly elected Congress to rein in Washington's unsustainable fiscal trajectory so that the possibility is eliminated of further Fed purchases of the debt. Otherwise, they will be signing up to have the U.S. triple-A credit rating downgraded, and will preside over the decline of the nation as an economic superpower. Spending must be cut, and the Fed has to be reined in and audited. The very solvency of the Treasury is in danger, and only Congress can reverse course and begin to pay down the debt, before it is too late."