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Pardon my cynicism, but it seems like many of the actions the administration is pushing are simply things they were pushing already and are using this health cr
by tasty_freeze 7y ago
Pardon my cynicism, but it seems like many of the actions the administration is pushing are simply things they were pushing already and are using this health crisis as cudgel to help get what they want.
What we need are lower interest rates! What we need is to limit immigration from Mexico (even though the US has a higher infection rate and there isn't any talk of limiting flights from, say, England). What we need to do is silence domain experts and have communications controlled by politicians at the White House.
Maybe this rate cut is actually the right thing to do, what do I know? But I have little reason to believe it was made for the right reasons.
- tachyonbeam 7y agoAgreed, I think many people in the administration and at the Fed were itching to cut rates for a while, and this is the perfect excuse to do what they were already planning to do.
- dageshi 7y agoThe administration doesn't direct interest rate policy, the FED does, within the context of the FED's mandate a rate drop isn't unexpected during an event like this.
- SkyPuncher 7y ago> The administration doesn't direct interest rate policy, the FED does, Given that the administration choose exactly who leads the FED, they're not exactly independent either.
- cmer 7y agoTo be fair, Trump has been pushing the Fed around non-stop. They basically follow his indirect orders. All for political gain at the expense of the future. It's pretty pathetic.
- tasty_freeze 7y agoThat is how it is supposed to work. Over the past couple of years we have seen the President break with tradition and uses his megaphone to berate and belittle the fed to try and get what he wants. Of course we cannot know if the fed has ignored all that, but by appearances, the president seems to be having an influence.
- slowmovintarget 7y ago"Never let a good crisis go to waste." -- Rahm Emmanuel New gov, same as the old gov?
- tasty_freeze 7y agoRahm Emmanual was indeed initially in Obama's cabinet, but he didn't last a year. Perhaps his politics didn't fit with the tenor of that administration. To use that quote to set up an equivalence between the two administrations is beyond the pale. I think neither Democrats nor Republicans would say the two administrations are alike.
- takeda 7y agoThe way things looking it is an attempt of propping things up until November, and it will be harder now. When our economy was doing well, the rates supposed to be increased, now we have very little room to use that to help with recovery.