"I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former
Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece
program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as
quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for
helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really
is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time."
"My part of the story began a few months
later. Having been at the Fed for seven years, until early 2008, I was working
on Wall Street in spring 2009 when I got an unexpected phone call. Would I come
back to work on the Fed's trading floor? The job: managing what was at the
heart of QE's bond-buying spree—a wild attempt to buy $1.25 trillion in
mortgage bonds in 12 months. Incredibly, the Fed was calling to ask if I wanted
to quarterback the largest economic stimulus in U.S. history."
