Equity markets around the world yesterday expressed their distaste for the possible end of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing (QE) policy. Share prices tumbled from New York to Tokyo. Even resource-rich Australia and emerging markets, including China, saw shares decline following the release of the minutes of last month's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. What upset the markets was a discussion at the January FOMC meeting about when and, more importantly, how to end the current QE policy. As someone put it on Bloomberg Radio yesterday, "Would the markets have been happier if the FOMC was ignoring the issue of how to end QE?" To understand how ending the QE policy might affect the economy and markets, investors need to understand how QE operates. To continue reading, please click here…