But Bernanke fell short of announcing bold QE, rather, he chose to save his bullets and only extend Operation Twist, by which the Fed is attempting to lower longer-term interest rates by extending the average maturity of its Treasury portfolio.
The Bernanke Fed has been characterized by an aggressive attack on Treasury yields through all possible means: zero-bound interest rates with a pledge to keep them at record-lows for years to come, purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities through several programs of quantitative easing (QE), and a maturity extension program dubbed Operation Twist that should push longer-term rates even lower.