quantitative easing (QE) = ποσοτική χαλάρωση

[pontios]

Ναι, ο όρος QE επιδέχεται πολλές ερμηνείες, αλλά όλες οι ερμηνείες αποτυγχάνουν στο ότι ο όρος «quantitative easing» υποδηλώνει μια συνεχιζόμενη κατάσταση, ότι θα χρειαστεί μια σειρά ποσοτικών δόσεων (χρημάτων) για να επιτευχθεί η σταδιακή βελτίωση.

Δεν πρόκειται για άμεση ανακούφιση εδώ (an immediate relief), αλλά μια σταδιακή ανακούφιση της κατάστασης (a gradual and ongoing relieving/easing of the situation).
Η επιλογή στα αγγλικά μιας λέξης που λήγει σε ing ήταν εσκεμμένη.

What we have in Greek is "χαλάρωση/relaxation"; something immediate, whereas what we have in English is "relaxing/easing", a gradual development, one in which there is no immediacy.

 

[cougr]

Pontios, we've overcooked this big-time, so I'll be brief. Translation and economic consequence issues aside and reiterating Domino's thoroughly valid points (#19), one could also argue that the term "quantitative easing" primarily derives from and directly relates to the expansion of bank reserves via the ex nihilo creation of a specific quantity of money (quantitative) and to the immediate relief and reduction of pressure that this provides to banks (easing).

 

[pontios]

Hi, cougr.
I actually agree with Domino - he has made some valid points.

I too see the term this way (as you've described it) - i.e., the creation of money "out of thin air/with a few pushes of a button" in order to buy and liquidate bonds and risky assets from the shell-shocked banks (post crisis) to help boost their reserves and improve their balance sheets and thereby encourage them to start lending to the market (and to transact with each other) once again.
I initially thought of this "easing" as "facilitating" the banks (making life easier for them by getting them out of a bind/a squeeze) - hence I did a search in Greek with "διευκόλυνση", and to my surprise there were 88 results.

But the point I'm making is, no matter how valid these interpretatations/suggestions may be (and I see them all as being valid), they all fail in that what we are really talking about here is an ongoing action/development (with the term "easing"), which all the suggested terms in Greek fail to address/convey, IMHO.
Do you not agree?
Maybe I'm just splitting hairs?

 

[cougr]

........Maybe I'm just splitting hairs?

I think you might be.:) Quantitative easing in all its forms and guises is necessarily a gradual process dependant on continual observation and feedback from a whole host of economic indicators but I don't think that the inventor of the term, or other entities that have since hijacked the term to describe their own approach to expanding the monetary base, had this in mind when applying the term.

 

[pontios]

Thanks, cougr, for your vote of confidence. :)

Anyway, because it is a gradual process - that's why a term ending in "ing" (a doing word) was chosen.
It's no coincidence.

Choosing another word (other than easing, but probably not the best choice) to help illustrate, it comes across as "quantitative relief" in Greek rather than "quantitative relieving", if you get my drift.
Relief is stagnant .. whereas "relieving" is dynamic - and that's what we ideally would (or should) want to convey in Greek, too - something dynamic/progressive (again, IMHO).