Fed’s ‘quantitative tightening’ was supposed to sink stocks and the economy. It may be boosting them instead, analyst says.

The Federal Reserve’s efforts to take some steam out of an overheating U.S. economy by draining liquidity from the financial system may be having the opposite of their intended effect, according to Bank of America interest-rate strategist Ralph Axel.

Instead of hurting the U.S. economy and undercutting the stock market, the Fed’s shrinking balance sheet and aggressive interest-rate increases may be helping savers to reap more income from their roughly $17 trillion in bank deposits, boosting consumption and the wealth effect…