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/More than a year after the recession ended, the economy has failed to generate a robust rebound.
Yeah, we know.. We told you last year that it wasnt going to happen.. You kept telling us that government knew best, and we didnt know what we were talking about, the economy was recovering, and jobs were a lagging indicator.
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Originally Posted by delusianne
The economy did grow slightly faster last summer as Americans spent a bit more, the government said Friday. But it wasn't nearly enough to lower unemployment. The jobless rate stands at 9.6 percent. It's been at least 9.5 percent for 14 months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression.
When does this lagging indicator turn around? You again kept telling us that it will come, the economy was turning and unemployment would drop.. Are you now abandoning this argument? Unemployment is NOT a lagging indicator.. IT IS the indicator. If unemployment doesnt decrease, the economy CANT recover..
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Originally Posted by delusianne
The "slack" in the economy - factories running below capacity and companies limiting hiring - has kept inflation historically low. In the 12 months that ended in September, consumer prices rose just 1.1 percent.
Because GOVERNMENT is TAKING ALL THE MONEY.. There isnt money to consume, there isnt money to invest, there isnt money to buy things.. Government taking money out of the economy to pump it back in IS HARMFUL.. Maybe NOW that the Fed is talking about monetizing the debt you will believe me..
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Originally Posted by delusianne
Bernanke has said the Fed would like to see inflation closer to 2 percent to show the economy is making a solid recovery. The Fed will likely signal in its policy statement after the meeting that it favors slightly higher inflation. But analysts think it will probably stop short of mandating an explicit inflation target of 2 percent or higher.
Inflation is meaningless and not natural. The more you inflate, the more of a separation between the haves, and the have nots..
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Originally Posted by delusianne
Bernanke doesn't want to see super-low inflation turn into deflation.
He also didnt want to monetize the debt. Just 1-2 years ago he said doing this was a sign of tragedy..
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Originally Posted by delusianne
That's a widespread drop in prices, wages and the values of homes and stocks.
no its not.. Are you making this up as you go along? Stocks increased 52% during the times of the great depression.. Wages dont need propped up by inflation, they need propped by up a DEMAND FOR JOBS.. Home values and everything else in society comes with JOBS... Peopl BUYIING homes create values, NOT an artificial inflation of the dollar. The only benefit for doing so is to minimize the federal debt obligations.
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Originally Posted by delusianne
Deflation can cause people to delay purchases because they feel they can buy later at lower prices.
Thats just bull.. If that was true then people would hold off buying the latest Iphone, or Xbox because the price will go down after Christmas. Its DEMAND that increases price, and a lack of demand that decreases it.. NOT deflation because consumers dont even notice it in the short term.. Seriously, do you not buy gas because it will go down $.05 next week?
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Originally Posted by delusianne
Falling incomes also make it harder to pay debts. Foreclosures rise. So do bankruptcies. Once it takes hold, deflation is hard for policymakers to break. Deflation contributed to Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s, and the country is still battling it./
ITS CALLED JOBS, ore more accurately a LACK of jobs.. The monetizing of the debt indicates that even the Fed doesnt see jobs anytime soon..
Has anyone noticed that Barnanke who says he has a bag full of tricks keeps doing the same thing,QE. His whole theory is to spur lending and it won't work considering large amounts of people that foreclosed, filed bankruptcy,lousy credit etc etc. Then there is business already sitting on a trillion due to economic policy uncertainty.
Has anyone noticed that Barnanke who says he has a bag full of tricks keeps doing the same thing,QE. His whole theory is to spur lending and it won't work considering large amounts of people that foreclosed, filed bankruptcy,lousy credit etc etc. Then there is business already sitting on a trillion due to economic policy uncertainty.
Bump rates 50 basis points...and allow the markets take care of things.
Almost everything he's been doing is just artificially controlling things, which hasn't worked (and won't work) and will come back to bite us 100x over.
He was talking about heading off deflation. "Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.... Lower rates over the maturity spectrum of public and private securities should strengthen aggregate demand in the usual ways and thus help to end deflation."
The first point I think should be raised is why is inflation always considered more often than not to be a good policy? There was all this talk from Bernanke and other Fed lovers like Krugman that we were about to undergo a huge wave a deflation and if we didn't set the monetary gas pedal to the floor, the economy would sink and never recover. Well, if anyone follows the price of commodities, you'd notice that deflation is practically non-existent.
In addition, you also have to look at it from another definition. The definition of inflation used today is the rise in prices. Well, that doesn't explain very much. Inflation from the context of what it was used for was the increase in the monetary base, which caused the increase in prices. The assumption that central bankers make in that inflation just appears out of nowhere doesn't seem to correlate in real life.
Plus, you also have to factor in a moral argument as well. If a poor person that normally pays $2.00 for a loaf of bread has to end up paying $3.50 in the name of "quantitative easing", well, that doesn't seem like a good policy to me. A decrease in prices is not necessarily a bad thing and I consider it helpful in correcting for bubbles.
As for Bernanke's comment, it still stands as idiotic. Economies don't exist in a vacuum where simply injecting money into the system creates demand and nothing else happens. If too much money is artificially inserted into circulation, then you start running into problems with currency devaluation. We've been lucky because the US is such a large economy, but countries that use Bernanke's mentality (like Zimbabwe) don't fare well on the monetary end. In addition, if I print money, I am not stimulating, I am counterfeiting. Why Keynesian theory continues to justify this crime is beyond me.
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When your sources start to make you believe the pleasant thought that experts are just dumb buffoons, that should tell you that something is amiss.
We don't trust policy makers to command businesses, otherwise the Soviet Union would have been the most prosperous country. Why should one organization be in charge of the entire monetary and financial system of a country? Your assumption relies on these people making no mistakes, but when they do screw up, the implications are felt everywhere. Too long have politics assumed the Fed works efficiently when it is clear that it does not. If you believe that markets work, then it is only logical to assume that the Fed's power must be reduced or abolished.
"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.... Lower rates over the maturity spectrum of public and private securities should strengthen aggregate demand in the usual ways and thus help to end deflation."
When your sources start to make you believe the pleasant thought that experts are just dumb buffoons, that should tell you that something is amiss.
Dear readers, please ask your 'representatives' to send you a copy of the LAW that says a "dollar bill" is a dollar.
There is no such law.
Since 1933, no dollars have circulated.
Dollar bills, defined in Title 12 USC sec. 411, are IOUs to pay dollars, on demand. That promise was repudiated in House Joint Resolution 192, June 1933. It's IN the PUBLIC RECORD, folks.
"They" are banking on YOU being dumber than a bag of hammers, for not holding them accountable for ROBBING you.
Do not believe me - go to your nearest county courthouse and ask the presiding judge to rule that a "dollar bill" is a dollar.
I did - and he REFUSED - with a red face, too.
So, what have we been dealing with since 1933?
The biggest swindle ever.
And you gave consent to it... every day, in every way.
Every other country has turned off the printing press because it didn't work.
Cutting back is what they are doing now as you read about the austerity measures.
But not us. With all the tricks Bernake says he has..he keeps going back to the same dog and pony show. Buying Treasuries with money you don't have is not putting money into the economy and will not help consumers. Buying Treasuries puts money in government's hands who are using it to pay the interest on Treasuries they previously sold.
We have to borrow each month just to pay the interest on money we borrowed ..get it ?
The more we borrow the more we will have to borrow to keep our head above water.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,766,887 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by delusianne
"On Tuesday, Chairman Ben Bernanke opens a two-day meeting where he will help craft a Fed plan to buy more government bonds. The idea is for those purchases to further drive down interest rates on mortgages and other loans. Cheaper loans might then lead people to spend more. The economy would benefit. And companies would step up hiring.
"That's the plan, anyway. But many question whether the Fed's new plan will provide much benefit. For one thing, the Fed already has driven rates to super-low levels. And anticipation of the Fed's new program has helped push down mortgage rates to their lowest points in decades. Yet the economy is still struggling."
Fed Poised To Buy More Bonds To Try To Aid Economy : NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130995906 - broken link)
Very good story.
Interest rates are already near zero. How much lower can they go?
Every other country has turned off the printing press because it didn't work.
Cutting back is what they are doing now as you read about the austerity measures.
But not us. With all the tricks Bernake says he has..he keeps going back to the same dog and pony show. Buying Treasuries with money you don't have is not putting money into the economy and will not help consumers. Buying Treasuries puts money in government's hands who are using it to pay the interest on Treasuries they previously sold.
We have to borrow each month just to pay the interest on money we borrowed ..get it ?
The more we borrow the more we will have to borrow to keep our head above water.
China will OWN us! And we Americans will be working for China.
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