Updated October 2016. The Federal Reserve System has taken the most extraordinary actions in its 102-year history since the 2007 - 2009 Great Recession, maintaining a key interest rate near zero-percent for seven years while creating $3.6 trillion in bank reserves. This initiative, dubbed Quantitative Easing or QE, has become the most important Fed policy of our generation. Learn why Quantitative Easing is largely responsible for the dramatic increase in stock prices since the Great Recession. Discover why the US and other nations have become addicted to QE as they attempt to avoid another...