A qualitative assessment of quantitative easing sentiment

Abstract

This mixed-method study undertakes a comprehensive inquiry of the public discourse on social media surrounding quantitative easing (QE) across the US, the UK, and the European Union. Utilizing a unique tweet dataset, we reveal the sentiment polarity toward QE policy to be strongly negative, at 71.27%, with positive sentiment a mere 4.25%. Distilling the negative QE sentiment, we identify prominent themes of “anti-government,” “anti-central bank,” “inequality,” “ineffectiveness,” “inflation,” and “asset inflation,” and demonstrate a longitudinal association between perceived inequality and asset price inflation with an anti-establishment stance. We conclude with suggested central bank policy recommendations to restore and foster public trust.