How to Ease the Fed off Quantitative Easing
Author: Matt Sekerke and Steve H. Hanke
Outlet: The Wall Street Journal
Date: April 21, 2026
Hanke and co-author Matt Sekerke respond to Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh's push to aggressively shrink the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, which expanded from $900 billion in 2008 to nearly $9 trillion in 2022 and still stands at $6.7 trillion despite three-plus years of quantitative tightening. The authors argue that shrinking the balance sheet further requires a sober accounting of the unrealized losses embedded in the Fed's portfolio and the potential market disruption from unwinding it. They propose that Congress create a dedicated resolution fund to acknowledge and budget for those losses and manage the wind-down, freeing the Fed to return to a more conventional monetary policy.
Full Citation:
"How to Ease the Fed off Quantitative Easing," The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2026. (with Matt Sekerke)