Gold – the final bubble, page-4140

QE4 is coming

"The Fed is not going to raise rates. They are at zero forever," said Peter Schiff, head of Euro Pacific Capital and one of the most well-known and impassioned of all the Wall Street Fed critics. "The Fed is not done with QE, they're just getting started. The Fed is doing QE4, QE5. This is a never-ending process."

The "QE" reference, of course, is to quantitative easing, the bond-buying program that added about $3.7 trillion to the Fed's now-$4.5 trillion balance sheet since late 2008. Three rounds of QE, plus the balance sheet-neutral Operation Twist, have helped boost the stock market dramatically, with the S&P 500 rising more than 190 percent off the March 2009 lows. But the impact on the real economy has been less tangible.
In addition to the previous rounds of QE, the Fed has kept its key interest rate near zero, holding down lending rates and keeping borrowing costs low for the $8 trillion in debt the government has added since the financial crisis.

With no room to take rates lower, markets in near-free fall and worries building over a global recession, another round of easing would be the only monetary policy option left.