dstanchfield

Well, since the AP is breaking the story, do you suggest we hang out until Reuters covers it?

I am not sure I understand your point, I didn't say anything about inflation. Maybe you meant to reply to the original post. But I'll respond nevertheless...

Saying inflation is caused by spending, not by money printing, is akin to saying a heroin addict has a "syringe problem." Sure, the spending is what actually increases prices, but tell me, how can spending actually increase? What allows this to take place? Your line of thinking is similar to Nixon's, when he decided to freeze wages in the 70s, thinking this would tame inflation. How did that work out for him. Just about as well as outlawing syringes would do to eliminate heroin addicts.

The Fed's goal with QE is to increase asset prices, this is not some right-wing conspiracy theory.

You would have a point if the 'libertarian-oriented site' referred to QE as "asset printing." It didn't though. QE may not increase financial assets in an economy, but it does increase available money. The money used to purchase the bond did not exist prior to the swap.

Now if you really wanted to argue that this is not money printing, I might accept the claim that the Fed will at some point unwind this position. But even that is highly dubious.