The Fed buying up assets is a purely political move to prop up the markets, i.e. to protect investors at the expense of everyone else. It's a dick move for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that it effectively says: all rules are off. We, the Fed, will protect you, the shareholders, from all systemic risk by using our fiscal power to as a guarantor of valuations. That in turn causes more people to buy shares, because when all the risk is gone why the hell not? And that in turn disconnects prices from reality. It is welfare for the wealthy.

I am a major beneficiary of this policy and I still think it sucks big fat honking weenies, particularly since it has been implemented by people who rail against welfare for the people who actually need it. The brazen hypocrisy makes me want to retch.

How is it a political move when basically every central bank in the world is doing the exact same thing? Also, they have not bought any equities. They are almost entirely just buying our own governments debt and mortgage backed securities as you can see in their balance sheet [0].

[0]: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/h41.htm#...

> How is it a political move when basically every central bank in the world is doing the exact same thing?

Um, because every central bank in the world is controlled by rich people?