Involves

Moment

Quantitative easing begins

Washington and New York, 2008–2010; the Federal Reserve expands its balance sheet after the crash

On November 25, 2008, as credit markets seized after Lehman's failure, the Federal Reserve announced purchases of up to $100 billion in agency debt and $500 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities. In March 2009 it expanded the plan to include $300 billion in longer-term Treasury securities and more agency bonds. The policy became known as quantitative easing.

Program
QE1
Expanded
March 2009
Authorized
$1.75 trillion

The caveat

QE was an emergency stabilization policy, not a guaranteed transfer to Wall Street. Research finds that it lowered longer-term rates and supported output and employment, gains that could help households without large portfolios. Its distributional effects remain contested because asset gains, debt relief, employment, and inflation do not fall on the same people.

The mechanics still reveal a sequence. The Fed bought securities in financial markets and paid by creating reserve balances in the banking system. Bond prices and yields moved first. Lower rates then spread to mortgages, corporate borrowing, stocks, and housing, while effects on hiring, wages, and consumer prices arrived later and less evenly. This is the modern Cantillon question: who encountered the policy at each stage?

The phrase quantitative easing was already used in Japan. The Federal Reserve called its program large-scale asset purchases.

How it connects

The crisis program that made the modern Cantillon sequence visible in financial markets first.

This moment appeared in Whoever is closest to the money supply benefits most, the Involves connection for August 1, 2026, which asked: Why do not all boats rise with the tide when you print money?

Check yourself

What did the Federal Reserve announce as quantitative easing began in late 2008 and early 2009?

Large-scale purchases of agency debt, mortgage-backed securities, and later longer-term Treasuries.. Right. The Fed bought securities in financial markets, expanding the program in March 2009 to a total authorization of up to $1.75 trillion.

What the sources establish

  • On November 25, 2008, the Federal Reserve announced purchases of up to $100 billion in agency debt and up to $500 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities.

  • On March 18, 2009, the FOMC expanded purchases to totals of up to $1.25 trillion in agency MBS, $200 billion in agency debt, and $300 billion in longer-term Treasuries.

  • The Federal Reserve described these programs as large-scale purchases of longer-term securities in the System Open Market Account.

Sources