In a conversation with Executive Vice President and Director of Economic Research Glenn Rudebusch, we talk about the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary policy actions that have increased the size of the Fed’s balance sheet to about $4.5 trillion. The discussion covers topics that include the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the Fed as a lender of last resort, the effectiveness of quantitative easing (QE), and the December 2015 liftoff of short-term interest rates. We also look ahead to consider how the Fed’s balance sheet is expected to re-normalize over the next decade. This podcast is part of our 2015 annual report, What We’ve Learned…and why it matters.
