The Federal Reserve just made a move: starting from today, it will buy $40 billion in Treasury securities each month. The speed and scale of this action have completely exceeded market expectations. Many initially thought it was another round of quantitative easing, but actually it’s not — this is a "technical stopgap" strategy designed to prevent a replay of the 2019 "cash crunch" crisis.

Why the sudden urgency? Reserves have already fallen below the "ample" warning line, and banks are beginning to face liquidity strains across the year-end, with overnight rates soaring. Powell later admitted: "The tightening pace is faster than we anticipated." The market fluctuated instantly; overnight rates did ease somewhat, but the question is — can this "blood transfusion" truly stabilize the financial system at year-end? Or is it just a temporary band-aid?

More importantly, this operation is independent of the regular reinvestment plan, directly hitting the core of liquidity. An analyst aptly described it: "They’ve broken the cushion." The historical parallel is the 2019 crisis when rates shot up to 10%. The current situation feels familiar, but the scale and complexity are different. Every link in the year-end liquidity chain could be a trigger point; whether this can pass smoothly remains uncertain.