The deficit’s shrinking, the polarization in DC means nothing much will be done on anything for the next 4 years, the banks and corporations are sitting on huge piles of cash, and inflation remains well below the Fed’s recently announced 2 1/2% target.
Gorilla asks: “So why is the Fed still doing so little about unemployment, a problem it could solve by giving people free money?”
Sorry, but if our President does anything to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, then he’s a worthless asshole who deserves to be on the ash heap of history with all the other worthless assholes.
But he’s an inspiring asshole, and maybe a calculating asshole, so he gets the benefit of the doubt, but not beyond 2013.
Perhaps he’s hoping to get back the House in 2014, but there’s no chance of that at all, so get off the deficits, Barack, and do something for the vast majority of our country who are suffering.
What’s needed is the following:
1) Getting rid of the filibuster for good.
2) At least $1-2 trillion in additional spending for a jobs program and infrastructure rebuilding that will cost nothing at all.
3) A willingness to call out the Know Nothings once and for all as a party that cares about only one thing: tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
4) A Federal Reserve that will raise the inflation target to 5% until unemployment falls below 6%.
Gorilla says: “Anything less is not a failure of leadership, it’s simply how low and how utterly shitty we can go!”
If you’re stuck on, or rather below, an utterly stupid 2% inflation target, while the political classes abdicate responsibility for the the fiscal side, then you’re not fulfilling the dual mandate!
High unemployment and low inflation is an absolute disaster for this country. What’s needed is a clear statement: 5% inflation will be tolerated until unemployment falls below 6%.
Gorilla says: “The thumbs are increasingly thumbscrews, as applied by the Fed!”
The US economy contracted in the 4th quarter and is several trillion dollars below the long-term growth trend.
And what are the topics dominating Washington while this ongoing disaster wreaks havoc?
1) Gun Control: no chance whatever that anything will be done.
2) Immigration: no chance whatever that anything will be done.
3) The Deficit: every chance that the economy will be wrecked further by contractionary and foolish austerity.
Oh yes, and there’s unemployment and climate change, but nobody’s even discussing these issues!!!
Gorilla says: “A world run by stupid people can only grown in stupidity!”
On the following:
British television: what it currently lacks are writers who understand pacing and plot development. Compare for example Downton Abbey with Mr. Selfridge. The former is leaden, repetitive, and uninteresting. The latter is uninteresting and repetitive but moves along. Andrew Davies is a great television scriptwriter. Julian Fellowes is not.
American television: about as good as it’s ever been, but they could learn from the British about bringing a show to an end. Mad Men’s three seasons too long, as is Breaking Bad. Homeland was great for one season. Boardwalk Empire and the Sopranos are both terrible.
Coin of the realm: We live in a country in which one political party is both insane and incapable of governing. Our President cares more about compromise than he does about unemployment. Taken together, it’s why we’ll be living through a lost decade.
It’s difficult not to be depressed by the mediocrities who rule over us.
Gorilla says: “Fudge making is by nature pointless!”
1) Nobody in either party in the Congress cares about the deficit or the debt.
2) The Republican Party in the Congress cares about only one thing: reducing taxes on the wealthy.
Gorilla says: “That’s all that matters in today’s politics!”
Ben Bernanke has at last gotten off his ass and announced a more or less unlimited QE3.
Time to cheer?
Well, yes and no.
What was missing today is a clear statement that the Fed will allow inflation to rise even after an economic recovery is in place. And that rise in inflation should be linked explicitly to a fall in unemployment: Gorilla would like to see 5% inflation until unemployment falls to 6% or less.
Giving money to all Americans freely might be more efficient than providing it to our very corrupt financial system. The banks have stockpiled huge amounts of cash already, they’re still deleveraging, and the demand that would spark lending remains woefully inadequate.
Free money in everyone’s pocket would greatly assist in getting demand, and therefore GDP growth, back to the trend line. It would also make a huge dent in what should be unacceptably high levels of unemployment.
Bernanke’s history has been to be too late and too conservative. Unlimited QE3 says he understands that the Fed can do a lot more than it has so far.
Gorilla says: “A bit of straight talk would be welcome, but at least they’re putting money where there mouth isn’t!”
Inflation’s running well below the Fed’s 2% inflation target, while unemployment remains above 8% and the Fed continues to do nothing.
What’s needed is QE3 for you and me: lots of money provided directly to Americans. The Fed could buy up and refinance all the mortgages in the country. The Fed could send a check for $10,000 to every American. The Fed could announce a much higher inflation target (5% would be about right) that will be pursued until unemployment drops below 7%.
But the Fed does nothing, primarily because its notion of independence means it can’t get too involved in helping the US economy during an election year.
Such an approach is what it is: cowardly and amoral.
Gorilla says: “Stupid or evil, it makes no difference, the Fed is a disaster!”
With unemployment high and the economy not growing fast enough to match population growth, what in hell is Ben Bernanke waiting for?
The Fed needs to be raising the inflation target now. The Fed needs to be providing money to ordinary Americans, not continuing to encourage corporate America to sit on its hands (or engage in outright criminality, as is clearly the case on Wall Street). The Fed needs to start a jobs program, which could be called QE4U.
Instead, the second worst Fed Chairman in history continues his steady march to the drumbeat of failure and amorality.
Gorilla says: “The sooner this guy is gone, the better off the country will be!”
Yes, David Cameron, you’re destroying your country!
Yes, EU, you’re still not serious at all about solving your competitiveness problem!
No, Washington, raising taxes to 1990s levels will not destroy the economy and will in fact lower the deficits everyone says are a dire threat!
Having a jobs program will do even more, but apparently no one on either side of the Atlantic can be bothered!
Gorilla says: “So much stupidity in the service of pig ignorance is not exactly confidence building!”
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