Bill Ackman Fed is a term used to refer to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions during the tenure of former Chairman Ben Bernanke, and subsequent Chair Janet Yellen. The term was coined by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman in 2014, who suggested that Bernanke had taken an overly aggressive approach towards quantitative easing (QE) which would lead to inflationary pressures down the road.
The QE policies implemented by the Federal Reserve have been controversial since they were first introduced in 2008 as part of efforts to rescue the economy from recession. Proponents argue that without them, unemployment levels would not have recovered so quickly and economic growth may have stalled even further; while opponents suggest such measures are merely inflating asset bubbles with no real benefit for ordinary Americans or businesses.
Since leaving office in 2018, both Bernanke and Yellen have expressed their doubts about continued reliance on QE alone as a means of stimulating economic activity – though neither has publicly endorsed Ackman’s view that it should be phased out entirely. Nevertheless, some commentators continue to use “Bill Ackman Fed” as shorthand for what they perceive as excessive accommodation by central banks over recent years–-a view shared by many cryptocurrency investors wary of government interference or manipulation of money supply figures via digital currencies like Bitcoin.
