In this podcast [35 min], Insightview has talked with Torben M. Andersen, Professor at the Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, about whether QE has failed and, if so, “what went wrong?”. We talk about a challenged banking system, a flat Phillips Curve, a limited number of policy tools to fight the next economic downturn, negative interest rates and the "new normal".

In Denmark, Sweden and the rest of Europe, quantitative easing, also called money-printing, has not triggered much public debate. This is because most stakeholders have reaped the benefits, not least institutional investors, wealthy individuals, people with large pension savings and the public sector [zero cost of funding]. Furthermore, homeowners have benefited from historically low mortgage rates and, consequently, higher house prices.

The absence of critical voices is even more startling, considering that QE has had a profound impact on income and wealth distribution. The fact is that the monetary policy approach “socialised capital losses” and “privatised capital gains”. Money-printing created “financial repression”, which has impacted social classes differently. High-incomer-earners, in particular, appear to have benefited the most, while low income-earners appear to be the main losers, although the jury is still out.
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Torben M Andersen is a fellow at international research centres, including CEPR, London, IZA, Bonn, and CES Ifo, Munich. He has been actively involved in giving policy advice in Denmark, the other Nordic countries, a number of other countries as well as the EU Commission. Among other activities, Torben M Andersen has been the chairman of the Danish Economic Council and the Welfare Commission, a member of the Danish Systemic Risk Council and vice-chair of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council. Currently, he is among other things Chairman of the Economic Council for Greenland, member of the Economic Policy Council of Finland and the European Economic Advisory Group, Munich. 
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Q‌E is large-scale asset purchases whereby a central bank buys predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets to inject liquidity directly into the economy. The main objective of quantitative easing is to bring an economy out of recession and help ensure that inflation does not fall below the central bank's inflation target.

Mr Bernanke, who was the chairman of the US Federal Reserve [2006-2014] in 2008 and a keen student of the 1930s, believed that a “balance sheet recession” must be combated by reflating assets. This was the situation when the financial crisis erupted more than a decade ago. This led to the launch of QE-1 in November 2008, which aimed to prevent an economic depression. Later, a second-round was launched in November 2010. The main objective of QE-2 was to reinforce growth. The same applied to QE-3 in September 2012. Since then, other central banks have pursued the same policy, not least the Bank of Japan and the ECB.

‌21. October 2019 - Podcast interview with Steffen Jensen, Danish TV2's Middle East correspondent, about yet another crisis in Syria, European hypocrisy, Africa, and the risk of a new migrant crisis
‌4. September 2019 - Europe: The monetary experiment is running out of control; the credibility of fiat money is eroding
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