Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it (the earth) back again. However, take it (the power to create deposits) away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits .Josiah Charles
Stamp
"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." -- George Washington
Tax loopholes for the rich as well as mega-corporations have for several decades been integral to the transfer of wealth from the middle to the top, but the enormous acceleration of this trend must be entirely credited to QE. One might also take notice of how much is skimmed off the top of any government program by the rich. Government is a gravy train once you get on it.
The basic structure of it, dial back the taxes on the top and cover the difference with new government debt. The new government debt is very liquid and used almost like FED notes, dollars. The top doesn't spend money like the bottom does. A much larger percentage of the tops income gets invested. With a high top marginal tax rate, the top is obliged to hide there income. Hiding income simplifies to paying wages, investing money simplifies to loaning money with the expectation of getting it back with interest. You get a positive return on paying wages although it isn't as direct and easy to see as interest paid on a note. That it isn't direct and easy to see is why it is call a tax shelter. Being able to put the return openly on the books makes making money directly off of debt devices very attractive.
So a high tax rate on the top end grows the middle and a low one cashes it out and blows a debt bubble.
It is very interesting to look at a graph of top marginal tax rate and compare it to total debt as % of GDP.
I agree on your assessment that the DOW will hit 25,000 thanks to QE 4. I'd put the when as sometime in 2018.
Monetary and fiscal policy are like yin and yang. Hard to have good monetary policy without the corresponding fiscal policy. For example, during the last round of QE, it would have been a good idea to put forth a larger and more comprehensive infrastructure stimulus.
That or take the opportunity to balance the books. The FED could've pushed AG up so the government didn't have to.
But if you really want to get inflation you need the expectation of higher future costs. Oil, iron ore, corn etc. are all headed lower. So there is no expectation of higher costs any time soon, so the longer cash sits idol then the more it will be worth later.
As if the stock market is the only indicator of the economy.
Unemployment is low.
House prices are bat-crap insane, and growing.
Interest rates are already ridiculously low.
If the government pulls a QE, it's only to help their rich buddies in banks and on Wall Street.
The cronyism in this country is getting to be unbelievable.
The people that will suffer from this, as always, are the regular average folk who just try to get by. A QE would devastate this country and might be the final nail in the coffin for the middle class.
You have to love American capitalism:
When business is good:
"Free market! Stay out of our business Government!"
When business is bad:
"Government help!"
Interest rates need to rise.
Our government just keeps manipulating things, putting off the inevitable downward slope of the natural debt cycle.
As if the stock market is the only indicator of the economy.
Unemployment is low.
House prices are bat-crap insane, and growing.
Interest rates are already ridiculously low.
If the government pulls a QE, it's only to help their rich buddies in banks and on Wall Street.
The cronyism in this country is getting to be unbelievable.
The people that will suffer from this, as always, are the regular average folk who just try to get by. A QE would devastate this country and might be the final nail in the coffin for the middle class.
You have to love American capitalism:
When business is good:
"Free market! Stay out of our business Government!"
When business is bad:
"Government help!"
Interest rates need to rise.
Our government just keeps manipulating things, putting off the inevitable downward slope of the natural debt cycle.
Agreed. What probably most Americans are unaware of its the massive devastation the QE has done to all world economies and how it has affected social and political structures. And it has only just begun. And further transfer of wealth to the Uber-rich via the QE mechanism will only hasten the unraveling of the Establishment preferred social order. It's quite extraordinary to observe. Of course here in the U.S. the Establishment is at lost at what to do about the Trump and Sanders insurgencies which will not go away no matter what happens during the next election as long as economic policies are designed to move wealth from the middle class to the Uber-rich.
As I get older and get more tuned in, I cant help but watch the markets and become a participant. Anyone paying attention could see the short in oil companies.. And now buy oil with the profits from shorting it... Short yesterdays leaders.
Our government just keeps manipulating things, putting off the inevitable downward slope of the natural debt cycle.
Well Ronald Reagan did charge the FED with keeping the markets from crashing.
And like it or not, the FED isn't actually part of the government. They would like us to think so, but they aren't.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
