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How Central Banks Use Quantitative Tightening Without Breaking Markets
Description
Episode 9 of Monetary Policy Explained with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna dive into quantitative tightening — the process central banks use to shrink their balance sheets after crisis-era bond buying. They walk through the specific mechanics: how the Fed lets Treasury securities roll off without reinvesting, the difference between passive QT and active asset sales, and one real case study — the Bank of Japan's 2025 taper that caused a sudden yen spike and forced a policy pause. Lucas explains why QT is often called 'stealth tightening' because it sidesteps interest-rate headlines, and Luna asks whether central banks can do QT gracefully at all. The episode also touches on the 2019 repo market flashback and why today's reserve abundance changes the math. Full of concrete details about maturity buckets, reverse repo facility drains, and the 'neutral rate' debate — all anchored to a May 2026 perspective.