USA

The monetary policy responses to the economic and health crisis due to covid-19 were to lower interest rates, the historical amounts of liquidity injected by central banks, and loans to the financial sector.

The implemented monetary policy, known as "quantitative easing", had the objective of halting the fall of the stock market, stimulating consumption, investment and employment which, in turn, would favor economic recovery.

The upcoming normalization of monetary policy will be a challenge for central banks. The experience gained with the 2008 crisis shows that normalization is a medium and long-term policy and there is uncertainty about what, how and when it will be.

The reasoning of modern monetary theory holds that countries with reserve currencies can maintain unlimited levels of fiscal deficits and public debt because they have financing available. The evidence, however, shows that massive deficits do not mean economic dynamism in the US.

After 2008, federal deficits have doubled from about 60% of GDP to about 120%. Emerging nations shift their resources to China through the US deficit instead of growing, since the world is one and the borders are all open, and trade is unrestricted.

US debt in nominal amounts is more than that of the rest of the world combined. So monetary inflation exists and hits first the most deficit countries, then the least, and finally the rest of the world as imported inflation.

The Chinese conglomerate Envergando, and two large Chinese real estate companies (Fantasia and Sinic Hildings) stopped paying interest on their debt. This situation was interpreted as the possible start of a chain of international default and the trigger for a new financial crisis, which was false.

The decision of the last FOMC meeting of the FED was not to raise the Federal Funds rate and to maintain it in the range of 0 to 0.25%, which in real terms is -5.05%, and a forthcoming reduction in the pace of financial asset purchases to raise the long-term interest rate.

The U.S. government's financial situation raises more alarms than the bankruptcy of any real estate conglomerate. In the second quarter of 2020, the public debt/GDP ratio reached a record high, hence the Executive seeks to increase the public debt limit in the U.S. Congress.

During the pandemic, the United States and its institutions have taken measures that have had an impact on providing liquidity to the international system. In Latin America these have come through the IMF but also through agreements with the US central bank (FED).
In the context of the bankruptcy of companies, hotels, restaurant chains and the loss of investment grade, the US has seen a doubling of dividends per share versus earnings per share in banking. In these conditions, stock markets have, on the contrary, shown a strong recovery, even reaching new highs (Nasdaq).
The increase in liquidity by the FED and the central bank has allowed the stock exchanges to recover without a recovery in production, and high levels of unemployment, low levels of consumption and destruction of production, in a contradiction that leads to an increase in the already existing inequality.