He was giving a talk on unemployment. Along the way, he said that with quantitative easing, the Fed borrows short and lends long. So the Treasury could do the same thing by issuing less long-term debt and more short-term debt. So he does not understand why quantitative easing is anything to get excited about.

If the Treasury did this, and short-term interest rates started to go up, then the Fed would have to print money to maintain the short-term interest rate, which would make it clear that this is the same thing as quantitative easing. Anyway, food for thought.