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> "The solution is not to subserviently cling to corrupt elite institutions out of fear of the alternatives. It is, instead, to help bury those institutions..."

> "The solution is not to subserviently cling to corrupt elite institutions out of fear of the alternatives. It is, instead, to help bury those institutions..." Starting with the deeply corrupt policy of quantitative easing and zero interest rates, which seek to protect incumbent and bankrupt financial institutions by increasing the value of assets already in the hands of the elites, and devaluing liabilities, amongst which, wages.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago
I don't think that's intentional. CSPAN had the Yellen congressional grilling on this week; at least nobody was able to formulate this question in a way to make me suspect it's anything but a side effect. Poor comfort, but it's something. Certain classes of assets are under fairly severe devaluation. When the winners are companies like Apple - which is a company with a pretty anti-elitist, popular product - this also presents headwinds to this sort of theory. IMO, I rather like Steve Randy Waldman's essay "Depression Is a Choice".
- vegabook 10y ago
  Today's Fed, led by Yellen, has become a technocratic institution blinkered by "data", unable to rise above its econometric myopia to see what really is happening in the society which it serves. It has essentially been subjugated to the same economic doctrines and dogmas which serve the elites so well, and which are rolled out every time a brexit or a trump rears its head: "careful, this is bad for The Economy" (read: this is bad for the elites). Say what you like about Greenspan, but at least he had a self-determined intellect and swagger, which he used without needing to justify himself constantly with a spreadsheet's output (even if he used said swagger to serve his own class of capitalists). So I don't blame Yellen. She genuinely believes she is doing the right thing by the rules of the game she has been carefully selected to be unquestioning in.
  - ArkyBeagle 10y ago
    As someone with Monetarist leanings ( which arguably makes me more "data driven" than the other branches, ironically ), I relate all this back to the Bank of England, that solemn engine of colonial oppression, being used as the template for all banking. The Fed balance sheet is being used as a prop in an economic horror movie. It is indeed econometric myopia. We set 2% inflation targets and then fail to meet them. But production is inherently extrinsic to central banks. With a populace that thinks more and more like retired people, it's harder to get the fire lit.
  - gnaritas 10y ago
    > Say what you like about Greenspan, but at least he had a self-determined intellect and swagger, which he used without needing to justify himself constantly with a spreadsheet's output (even if he used said swagger to serve his own class of capitalists). That's not something to admire.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- api 10y ago
  Intentional or not, it's definitely created a world where labor is flat or declining while energy, food, education, health care, and especially housing are inflating like crazy. I think the point about Apple is a non-sequitur here. Low interest rates may also have benefited the tech industry, but that's secondary and doesn't affect as many people as real estate hyperinflation.
  - ArkyBeagle 10y ago
    Energy isn't close to stably inflating. All the zero-coupon on the Eagle Ford is unwinding and the service companies are in an anorexic phase. Health care, education and housing? Concentrated, deliberate subsidy means it costs more and there's more of it. Less so for health care, but housing and education are default "investments" - for when you're out of ideas. I just picked Apple because they appear to be a present day winner with a model that wasn't widely predicted. I'm down to grumbling about Keynesian animal spirits ( the retiree mentality ) for the rest of the economy.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

I don't think that's intentional. CSPAN had the Yellen congressional grilling on this week; at least nobody was able to formulate this question in a way to make me suspect it's anything but a side effect. Poor comfort, but it's something. Certain classes of assets are under fairly severe devaluation. When the winners are companies like Apple - which is a company with a pretty anti-elitist, popular product - this also presents headwinds to this sort of theory. IMO, I rather like Steve Randy Waldman's essay "Depression Is a Choice".

vegabook 10y ago
Today's Fed, led by Yellen, has become a technocratic institution blinkered by "data", unable to rise above its econometric myopia to see what really is happening in the society which it serves. It has essentially been subjugated to the same economic doctrines and dogmas which serve the elites so well, and which are rolled out every time a brexit or a trump rears its head: "careful, this is bad for The Economy" (read: this is bad for the elites). Say what you like about Greenspan, but at least he had a self-determined intellect and swagger, which he used without needing to justify himself constantly with a spreadsheet's output (even if he used said swagger to serve his own class of capitalists). So I don't blame Yellen. She genuinely believes she is doing the right thing by the rules of the game she has been carefully selected to be unquestioning in.
- ArkyBeagle 10y ago
  As someone with Monetarist leanings ( which arguably makes me more "data driven" than the other branches, ironically ), I relate all this back to the Bank of England, that solemn engine of colonial oppression, being used as the template for all banking. The Fed balance sheet is being used as a prop in an economic horror movie. It is indeed econometric myopia. We set 2% inflation targets and then fail to meet them. But production is inherently extrinsic to central banks. With a populace that thinks more and more like retired people, it's harder to get the fire lit.
- gnaritas 10y ago
  > Say what you like about Greenspan, but at least he had a self-determined intellect and swagger, which he used without needing to justify himself constantly with a spreadsheet's output (even if he used said swagger to serve his own class of capitalists). That's not something to admire.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
api 10y ago
Intentional or not, it's definitely created a world where labor is flat or declining while energy, food, education, health care, and especially housing are inflating like crazy. I think the point about Apple is a non-sequitur here. Low interest rates may also have benefited the tech industry, but that's secondary and doesn't affect as many people as real estate hyperinflation.
- ArkyBeagle 10y ago
  Energy isn't close to stably inflating. All the zero-coupon on the Eagle Ford is unwinding and the service companies are in an anorexic phase. Health care, education and housing? Concentrated, deliberate subsidy means it costs more and there's more of it. Less so for health care, but housing and education are default "investments" - for when you're out of ideas. I just picked Apple because they appear to be a present day winner with a model that wasn't widely predicted. I'm down to grumbling about Keynesian animal spirits ( the retiree mentality ) for the rest of the economy.