ZIRP in the U.S.: Fed Launches Quantitative Easing in the Form of Treasury Purchases

March 18:
The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and anticipates that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period

To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the Committee decided to increase the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion in 2009, and to increase its purchases of agency debt in 2009 by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months