The US Federal Reserve’s announcement last week that it will buy $600 billion of government bonds might work to stave off deflation in America, but our readers aren’t so sure that it will benefit Asia’s emerging economies.
In our web poll last week, most respondents reckoned that Ben Bernanke’s second round of quantitative easing will do more harm than good. Germany’s finance minister would certainly agree. Wolfgang Schaeuble described the plan last week as “clueless”, arguing that America’s economy isn’t in trouble because the government hasn’t pumped enough liquidity into the market.
He wasn’t alone in attacking the plan. Henrique Meirelles, head of Brazil’s central bank, said that hot money flowing out of...