Goldman Warns On The (Hyper)Inflationary Consequences Of A Successful QE2

by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
Oct. 19, 2010

One of the more devious consequences of QE2, is that it carries the seeds of its own destruction with it. Namely, if after flooding bank basements with another $2 trillion in excess reserves, and if bank lending picks up, suddenly the amount of currency in circulation will explode by over 300% from under $1 trillion to around $4 trillion. And while a comparable increase in wages is certainly not guaranteed to occur concurrently, what this explosion in the free money will do is lead to a very rapid and drastic destabilization in the concept of a dollar-based reserve currency. The only thing that could prevent this are the Fed's mechanisms to extract liquidity from the system. Alas, the IOER process is very much unproven, and should animal spirits kindle at the peak of the biggest liquidity tsunami in history, that money will inevitably make its way to Main Street, not Liberty 33. All this has made Goldman's Ed McKelvey warn that should increased bank lending be the end result of QE2 (and ultimately that is precisely what it should be, as that would be indicative of a healthy economy), then, to put it so everyone will get it, "this would cause too much money to chase too few goods." And, as liquidity extraction then would likely be impossible, it would be the beginning of the end: "The obvious risk to this last point is if inflation expectations surge. In a stronger growth environment than now prevails, such a surge could prove difficult to control. It would require Fed officials to remove the liquidity quickly, which is why they will concentrate on purchases of Treasuries (easier to sell back into the market) and remind us continually of the tools they have developed to withdraw the liquidity (by periodically using them in small size)." Too bad the Fed will soon be forced to buy MBS (again), REITs, ETFs and pretty much everything else.

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