In a recent article in the business section of the Los Angeles Times titled “The Fed took bold steps to books the economy.  Will undoing one of them rattle markets?”, UCLA’s Lee Ohanian was asked what he thought about the moved the Fed had made.

The article discusses how the Federal Reserve bought up trillions of dollars in bonds following the 2007-08 financial collapse, but is now preparing to scale back its massive investment of about $4.5 trillion in assets.  When Lee Ohanian was asked what he thinks of the Fed’s initial bailout, he points out that most studies have indicated that the Fed’s bond purchases lowered long-term rates between 0.25 and 0.75 percentage points, and that the effect was modest.