The mortgage industry injection

Well, Quantitative Easing II is here! The FED announced 600-800 billion in securities purchases through Q2 2011 at the most recent Fed meeting which concluded on Wednesday Nov. 5th. There was not much point in commenting at the time, because in addition to the market worthy event, we had an election and results to deal with. Now that everything has slowed down and the markets have had time to digest the "results", it time to take a look at how we in the rate watching industry have been affected.
To start, as was forecast, rates are hovering at all time lows. By specifically acknowledging the future purchases of financial securities, the FED has, for all intents and purposes, thrown their weight(and considerable where-with-all) behind the saving of the economy. The intended effect is to keep borrowing costs low to stimulate an economy that is barely trudging along. To that end, it would appear to be working. There is no denying that the FED is playing its last hand(they already lowered the borrowing rate to effectively "zero%"). There is not a lot of wiggle room if the latest purchases don't do enough to stimulate the economy. In addition future considerations about impact on inflation have yet to be measured.
Don't let your eyes stray from the prize though......Interest rates look to stay low for the foreseeable future. At this juncture, it is more important to note that one of the hopes of the latest round of QE is to relax the lending standards of the banks. To date, it would be offensive not to admit the banks are hoarding cash right now, and with the federal reserve explicitly backing the securities market, it would be nice to see banks make the money more accessible to consumers while we see these historic low rates.
The time is past to sit on the fence. This "event" is the one we have been waiting for. QE may or may not be good for the economy, but at the very least, in the short-term it is a boon for those well qualified to take advantage of the lowest rates ever offered.