October 29, 2014 10:43 pmThe QE experiment, as you insouciantly call it, is nowhere near an end

Sir, Your headline Feds grand experiment draws to a close (FT.com, October 29) combines ignorance of what quantitative easing is with insouciance as to its potential effects both of these mistakes being perennial features of FT coverage of QE. The experiment, as you call it, is not at an end; it is, with the purchases now ending, at its height. Only when the Fed starts selling the securities it has purchased back into the market will the USs QE begin its withdrawal from that height; only when the last purchased security has been sold back into the market, or allowed to expire with consequent permanent expansion of the money supply, will the grand experiment (I would prefer that you called it reckless gamble) be at its end.

Only at that point will we even start to see the results on interest rates, on securities prices, on the economy. The outcome, as has so often been the case with such Keynesian experiments, is unlikely to be pretty.

Jon MoynihanLondon SW3, UK-------------------------------------------

Letters in response to this:Dont blame Keynes for untoward after-effects / From Tony WelshQE has proved a poor substitute for what Keynes recommended / From Paul SerfatyOctober 30, 2014 10:42 pmQE has proved a poor substitute for what Keynes recommended

Sir,Jon Moynihanwrites with passion and commitment (Letters, October 30), but with less scrupulousness for historical fact.

There is nothing Keynesian about using central bank money to buy financial assets as a putative substitute for shortfalls in aggregate demand. Indeed, the failure of this policy to bring about significant multiplier effects, and the pooling of cash in banking and corporate coffers, shows how poor a substitute it is for what Keynes himself recommended: that government should spend directly on capital works, putting cash in the pockets of the employee-consumer, thus driving demand.

I know it would cause Mr Moynihan conniptions, but it would at least be genuinely Keynesian.

Paul SerfatyDirector, Asian Capital Partners,Hong KongDont blame Keynes for untoward after-effects

Sir, Your correspondent Jon Moynihan (Letters, October 30) accuses you of ignorance and goes on to describe quantitative easing as a Keynesian experiment. While interest rates mediate savings and investment in normal times, in times of recession Keynes favoured fiscal over monetary stimulus. So dont blame Keynes for any untoward after-effects of QE rather, blame austerity-fixated politicians.

Tony WelshPresident, Barbecana Inc,Houston, TX, US