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The article assumes a shared context of facts and interpretation that makes it unreadable for someone encountering it for the first time.

avs733 6y ago
Thanks, seeing someone else point this out makes me feel less bad about being monumentally confused.
Waterluvian 6y ago
Yeah. Good lord. I have no clue what’s going on.
freeone3000 6y ago
While the Federal Reserve talks a lot about how its rate policies have improved the economy, actual figures from inflation and unemployment don't back up any of the improvements they're claiming, and haven't for years. Now, the Fed is moving the goalposts -- saying low unemployment can no longer be a reason for a rate increase, only inflation, since inflation has also stayed lower than the target metric. As inflation generally rises when people have more money to spend, this implies that even though the unemployment figures are way down, and the stock market is way up, people and businesses aren't actually spending any more money. Why not? Simplest answer is "they don't have money to spend".
- deleted 6y ago
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- nojokes 6y ago
  Yes, all this money "printing" appears to inflate only asset prices. It is a great generator of inequality.
polotics 6y ago
Agreed! Here's Reuters to the rescue: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1YE17T https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/...
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jbob2000 6y ago
This is my layman’s understanding; “The price of Big Macs should be rising at a steady rate. It is bad if the price of Big Macs falls. Let’s put in some policies to make sure the price of Big Macs rises steadily! Oh wait, they aren’t rising steadily, they’re rising much slower! Our policies aren’t working! Hmm maybe it’s ok to have periods where Big Macs get cheaper, as long as there is an equal period afterwards where they make up that loss and get more expensive. We can call this symmetry!” The article is basically calling this idea of symmetry a big joke.

avs733 6y ago

Thanks, seeing someone else point this out makes me feel less bad about being monumentally confused.

Waterluvian 6y ago

Yeah. Good lord. I have no clue what’s going on.

freeone3000 6y ago

While the Federal Reserve talks a lot about how its rate policies have improved the economy, actual figures from inflation and unemployment don't back up any of the improvements they're claiming, and haven't for years. Now, the Fed is moving the goalposts -- saying low unemployment can no longer be a reason for a rate increase, only inflation, since inflation has also stayed lower than the target metric. As inflation generally rises when people have more money to spend, this implies that even though the unemployment figures are way down, and the stock market is way up, people and businesses aren't actually spending any more money. Why not? Simplest answer is "they don't have money to spend".

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nojokes 6y ago
Yes, all this money "printing" appears to inflate only asset prices. It is a great generator of inequality.

polotics 6y ago

Agreed! Here's Reuters to the rescue: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1YE17T https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

jbob2000 6y ago

This is my layman’s understanding; “The price of Big Macs should be rising at a steady rate. It is bad if the price of Big Macs falls. Let’s put in some policies to make sure the price of Big Macs rises steadily! Oh wait, they aren’t rising steadily, they’re rising much slower! Our policies aren’t working! Hmm maybe it’s ok to have periods where Big Macs get cheaper, as long as there is an equal period afterwards where they make up that loss and get more expensive. We can call this symmetry!” The article is basically calling this idea of symmetry a big joke.