3 ms·

Ah yes, the almighty Fed which knew exactly what to do in 2020, 2008, 2001, 1990, 1987...

whimsicalism 4y ago
2008 was clearly a failure for the Fed but I would love to see the counterfactuals of no Fed action for many of the other times you are mentioning.
SideQuark 4y ago
Yes, the Fed that stopped the much longer, more frequent, and deeper panics and recessions that occurred before it. In fact, it did so well for so long compared to previous methods, that the Great Moderation is a term in economics for the stability it gave. Instead of snarkily listing places you think it failed, compare that to pre-Fed failures, and you'll see that the Fed is a lot better than other solutions. And there's ample economic evidence central banking is much better than anything before it, which is why every single country in the world has adopted it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_Unit...
- HPsquared 4y ago
  The Great Depression wasn't so good.. that came after the Fed.
  - SideQuark 4y ago
    One example does not negate the evidence I just posted including 51 examples, nor does it change the vastly better trends under the Fed. So why pick a single event, ignore 50 others, ignore the trends shown in US (and 100's of other country) datasets, covering hundreds of years? I just posted a decent intro to the evidence. Please read it. The economic evidence for the benefits of central banking versus not having a central bank are so thoroughly answered in economic literature that not a single country is stupid enough to go without one, despite those 100s of countries having a lot of other variety.
    - moistly 4y ago
      Because feels before reals is how so many people live their life these days. Reality doesn’t let them blame the people they want to blame, or reality doesn’t assuage the fears they fear, or reality doesn’t let them feel smarter than everyone else, so they fall back to empty platitudes and fantasies to protect themselves from reality.

2008 was clearly a failure for the Fed but I would love to see the counterfactuals of no Fed action for many of the other times you are mentioning.

SideQuark 4y ago

Yes, the Fed that stopped the much longer, more frequent, and deeper panics and recessions that occurred before it. In fact, it did so well for so long compared to previous methods, that the Great Moderation is a term in economics for the stability it gave. Instead of snarkily listing places you think it failed, compare that to pre-Fed failures, and you'll see that the Fed is a lot better than other solutions. And there's ample economic evidence central banking is much better than anything before it, which is why every single country in the world has adopted it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_Unit...

HPsquared 4y ago
The Great Depression wasn't so good.. that came after the Fed.
- SideQuark 4y ago
  One example does not negate the evidence I just posted including 51 examples, nor does it change the vastly better trends under the Fed. So why pick a single event, ignore 50 others, ignore the trends shown in US (and 100's of other country) datasets, covering hundreds of years? I just posted a decent intro to the evidence. Please read it. The economic evidence for the benefits of central banking versus not having a central bank are so thoroughly answered in economic literature that not a single country is stupid enough to go without one, despite those 100s of countries having a lot of other variety.
  - moistly 4y ago
    Because feels before reals is how so many people live their life these days. Reality doesn’t let them blame the people they want to blame, or reality doesn’t assuage the fears they fear, or reality doesn’t let them feel smarter than everyone else, so they fall back to empty platitudes and fantasies to protect themselves from reality.