Instead, the U.S. is still left with this...their growing national debt. This is something that the Fed cannot solve...it's up to the politicians, and, still, I've heard nothing this year that leads me to believe that any part of this is being tackled. Instead, it seems to be the dirt that is lingering under the carpet, never to be dealt with until, perhaps, after the November election, or, perhaps, not at all.
With issues such as declining Durable Goods Orders and Core Durable Goods orders since 2001 and 2002, respectively, as shown on the graphs below (data released on Wednesday), declining consumer optimism, and housing numbers still at 2009 recessionary lows, I would have thought that politicians would have acted more responsibly to reduce the debt while finding measures to stimulate their economy.
Instead, it seems that the real purpose of the Fed's QE1, QE2, and Operation Twist programs was to provide liquidity to banks in an attempt to reverse the damage caused by their part in bringing forth the 2007/08 financial crisis. And, from what Ben Bernanke said today in his press conference, it would seem that the Fed is still wanting more liquidity to be carried by the banks...this doesn't signal greater lending policies to be forthcoming from the banks, rather, tighter policies.
This leads me to believe that the financial crisis was far greater than anyone let on and that it is still not resolved. So, what the Fed has been (and is) doing is not to provide money for public consumption, but to financial institutions to try to prevent their collapse pertaining to problems arising from domestic issues, as well as global issues (which have been escalating of late).
So, the politicians (Democrats and Republicans alike) are still on the hook to provide the relief to the average American which they promised in the last election, as well as to deal with their national debt problems. Let's not forget that America's credit rating was cut in August of 2011 because of the outstanding debt, and it has not been re-instated.