Will Fed infusion do any good?

Economists are divided on whether the buying up of billions of dollars more in Treasury bonds will provide much of a boost for the economy. Some opponents say that the Fed action, expected to be announced Wednesday, could do more harm than good by pushing up commodity prices. From the WSJ:

Anticipation of another round of bond purchases, albeit smaller, already has bolstered stock prices, put downward pressure on bond-market interest rates and depressed the dollar. Investors expect the Fed to announce purchases of about $500 billion in Treasury securities over six months. The decision is a close call, many outside economists admit. Marco Annunziata of UniCredit warned that the benefits will be "marginal" while the costs could be "huge." His view: "It's not going to stimulate consumer spending or business investment much," he said. "Consumers in the U.S. are still unwinding years of credit excess and additional liquidity isn't going to get them to spend more."

For what it's worth, the Dow eked out a small 6-point gain after being up around 100 points earlier in the day.