While public debt surged, bank lending declined during the World Wars and the Depression-era of the 1930s. Around 1950, private credit amounted to less than a third of annual GDP on average. By the early 1970s, it had doubled and reached its pre-World War I level.
On March 16, we launched a program to purchase Treasury securities and agency mortgagebacked securities in whatever amounts needed to support smooth market functioning, thereby fostering effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions.