End of America's QE could prove painful for investors in Asia

THIS month will mark a major milestone in the global economic calendar: it will herald the end of three rounds of quantitative easing (QE) by the US Federal Reserve. While this has been a long-anticipated event, its consequences are uncertain, and economies - particularly in Asia - should brace for the possibility that they will not all be pleasant.

First launched in 2009, QE has been a marathon exercise in unorthodox monetary policy, under which the Fed maintained interest rates at close to zero for five years an…