3 ms·

I really don't know how the Fed will unwind all this nonsense. It is sad that the Fed had to step in because we can't get the fiscal policy changes we need.

pjbk 6y ago
I think that, more often than not, they are part of the problem? Like favoring policies that promote spending and debt instead of long term investment and savings, in particular in those areas where it is really necessary.
retrac 6y ago
They cannot. At this point, it probably cannot be reversed or even held where it is, without jacking up taxes and spending a great deal on transfers of various kinds. (Reducing the cost of healthcare and education for the poor to both improve their lot and for long-term benefits from a healthier and more educated workforce, or funding long-term infrastructure construction projects, ideally with well-paid working class jobs, etc.) Up here in Canada we chose to pretty much just throw money at the working and middle class, especially with children, through the creation and then expansion of refundable low-income tax credits and a refundable credit for those with children. Now comes to almost $1500 per household average if I recall, and that has barely held the line on the natural rapid trend towards wealth inequality after the 2008 crash. And even then, still not equally or very well. It has probably not sucked to be in the bottom 10% of poor people in Canada this much, since before the war. The price of housing and food being most of that.
totalZero 6y ago
The Fed is the source of the problem. They purchase assets to prevent those assets from declining, and encourage consumer behavior that exposes citizens to economic risk. Remember Greenspan extolling the virtues of tapping into your home equity? Or more recently, Bernanke describing QE as a permanent tool? Last year, Yellen even suggested that Congress should revisit the rules around Fed purchases of equities. The Fed also encourages fiscal policy that reinforces a widening wealth gap and perpetuates moral hazards. We live in a society where the "experts" repeatedly push the notion that governments should stay out of growing sectors and inject life into collapsing sectors. Contrast this with what China does, where they back new enterprises in growing sectors while allowing deadwood firms to go under in lethargic sectors. [0] We in the USA have bailed out automakers that can't keep up with their foreign competition. We have bailed out banks that were too stupid to avoid buying billions of dollars of junk. We have even bailed out airlines during a period when business and international travel are at a deep nadir. Yet we find it difficult to spur new growth in the digital economy, whether by enabling competition against Big Tech or by investing in the infrastructure that supports semiconductor fabrication. Don't look to the Fed for a solution. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-04/china-tells-inefficient-firms-to-toughen-up-or-prepare-to-fail https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-04/china-tel...
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Correct. We became addicted to debt as a stimulant for the economy rather than riding out real recessions that work to realign capital towards actual productive use cases (painful but restorative). And now we've hit the limits of the growth that can be squeezed from juicing the national debt. This ends in hyperinflation at worst and permanent stagflation at best.

pjbk 6y ago

I think that, more often than not, they are part of the problem? Like favoring policies that promote spending and debt instead of long term investment and savings, in particular in those areas where it is really necessary.

retrac 6y ago

They cannot. At this point, it probably cannot be reversed or even held where it is, without jacking up taxes and spending a great deal on transfers of various kinds. (Reducing the cost of healthcare and education for the poor to both improve their lot and for long-term benefits from a healthier and more educated workforce, or funding long-term infrastructure construction projects, ideally with well-paid working class jobs, etc.) Up here in Canada we chose to pretty much just throw money at the working and middle class, especially with children, through the creation and then expansion of refundable low-income tax credits and a refundable credit for those with children. Now comes to almost $1500 per household average if I recall, and that has barely held the line on the natural rapid trend towards wealth inequality after the 2008 crash. And even then, still not equally or very well. It has probably not sucked to be in the bottom 10% of poor people in Canada this much, since before the war. The price of housing and food being most of that.

totalZero 6y ago

The Fed is the source of the problem. They purchase assets to prevent those assets from declining, and encourage consumer behavior that exposes citizens to economic risk. Remember Greenspan extolling the virtues of tapping into your home equity? Or more recently, Bernanke describing QE as a permanent tool? Last year, Yellen even suggested that Congress should revisit the rules around Fed purchases of equities. The Fed also encourages fiscal policy that reinforces a widening wealth gap and perpetuates moral hazards. We live in a society where the "experts" repeatedly push the notion that governments should stay out of growing sectors and inject life into collapsing sectors. Contrast this with what China does, where they back new enterprises in growing sectors while allowing deadwood firms to go under in lethargic sectors. [0] We in the USA have bailed out automakers that can't keep up with their foreign competition. We have bailed out banks that were too stupid to avoid buying billions of dollars of junk. We have even bailed out airlines during a period when business and international travel are at a deep nadir. Yet we find it difficult to spur new growth in the digital economy, whether by enabling competition against Big Tech or by investing in the infrastructure that supports semiconductor fabrication. Don't look to the Fed for a solution. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-04/china-tells-inefficient-firms-to-toughen-up-or-prepare-to-fail https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-04/china-tel...

chrisco255 6y ago
Correct. We became addicted to debt as a stimulant for the economy rather than riding out real recessions that work to realign capital towards actual productive use cases (painful but restorative). And now we've hit the limits of the growth that can be squeezed from juicing the national debt. This ends in hyperinflation at worst and permanent stagflation at best.