Lunchtime Must-Read: Jon Hilsenrath: Fed Critics Have Been Wrong…. Time to Declare the Debate Over

…a group of prominent academics and hedge fund managers urged the central bank to stop its bond purchases known as quantitative easing…. With the Fed set to end its bond-purchase program today, it is clear those warnings were wrong…. The critics also argued the QE programs distort financial markets. It is hard to prove or disprove that point. Stock market price-to-earnings ratios look stretched by some measures, but not so stretched by others. Junk bond and leveraged loan issuance has taken off, but corporate balance sheets relatively healthy…. But it is easy to see what didn’t happen. Inflation hasn’t taken off and there has been no currency debasement. Perhaps it will happen someday, but the Fed has been experimenting with QE since 2009 and it clearly hasn’t happened yet. At some point, you need to declare the debate over…