AIM Framework glossary
QEIR (Quantitative Easing, Individual Recipient)
Canonical definition
The non-inflationary fiscal mechanism under which the state issues direct monetary disbursements to Individuals, the defining feature of which is that newly created or fiscally authorised money reaches Individual recipients without intermediation through institutional balance sheets, asset markets, or the commercial banking system. QEIR covers the full range of direct-to-Individual state disbursement functions within AIM's institutional architecture, including (a) Cascading Support payments to Individuals made whole after loss arising from the operation of systems they did not design and could not reasonably have controlled, (b) Universal Basic Income payments issued to all Individuals on a regular periodic basis as a baseline entitlement irrespective of loss or need, and (c) any further direct-to-Individual disbursement functions the institutional architecture subsequently incorporates. QEIR is distinguished from conventional Quantitative Easing by the identity of the recipient, the Individual rather than the financial institution, and by the purpose of the disbursement, the direct provision of purchasing power to Individuals rather than the transmission of monetary policy through asset-market interventions. QEIR is non-inflationary in its architectural design because it is calibrated either to replace value already lost (in the Cascading Support case) or to distribute purchasing power against existing real productive capacity on a basis that the broader AIM monetary architecture offsets through complementary fiscal and monetary instruments (in the UBI case and analogous functions), so that the aggregate effect on the price level is neutral by design rather than incidental.
Explanation
QEIR is the single mechanism AIM uses whenever the state needs to put money directly into the hands of Individuals rather than into the banking system. It covers two main uses. The first is making people whole after losses caused by systems nobody controls, for example a borrower default that wipes out a lender, a systemic shock that destroys a household's savings, or an institutional failure that harms innocent parties. The second is Universal Basic Income, the regular payment every Individual receives as a baseline entitlement, which is distributed through exactly the same plumbing. In both cases the money reaches Individuals directly rather than being filtered through banks or asset markets, and in both cases the broader monetary architecture is designed so that these disbursements do not cause inflation, either because they replace value that has already been lost or because they are balanced against existing productive capacity through other fiscal and monetary adjustments. The "IR" distinguishes this from ordinary Quantitative Easing, which gives newly created money to banks and asset holders. QEIR gives it to Individuals.
Epistemic status
Institutional-Design Construct. Framework-Specific. See: Cascading Support, Universal Basic Income.
Derivation
Chapter 12, Section 12.36; Chapter 12, Section 12.35; Chapter 12, Section 12.36.1.