To all you QE1,2,...LargeNumberHere critics (including myself), you may be surprised to learn that Milton Friedman strongly believed that it was the FAILURE to enact quantitative easing that created the Great Depression.
"[The purpose of the Federal Reserve] was to provide the additional cash to meet the demands of depositors when a run arose."
"Why didn't this system prevent the Great Depression after 1929? Because from 1929 to 1930, after the stock market crash, the Federal Reserve System allowed the quantity of money to decline slowly, thereby throttling the monetary structure."
"If the Federal Reserve had stepped in, bought government securities on a large scale, providers would have found that they could get their money and stopped asking for it."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V5OP-VmXgE
"[The purpose of the Federal Reserve] was to provide the additional cash to meet the demands of depositors when a run arose."
"Why didn't this system prevent the Great Depression after 1929? Because from 1929 to 1930, after the stock market crash, the Federal Reserve System allowed the quantity of money to decline slowly, thereby throttling the monetary structure."
"If the Federal Reserve had stepped in, bought government securities on a large scale, providers would have found that they could get their money and stopped asking for it."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V5OP-VmXgE