We are hereby delivering a somewhat belated comment on the meeting of monetary central planners and their courtier economists at Jackson Hole. Luckily timing is not really an issue in this context.
Central bank headquarters: the Fed’s Eccles building, the ECB’s hideously expensive new tower in Frankfurt, and the BOJ’s Tokyo HQ (judging from the people in the foreground, it may be a source of noxious fumes).
When discussing papers and speeches delivered at the annual Jackson Hole meeting, it is important to consider the wider socio-economic context. As this article suggests (still the most recent reference available on the topic), the Federal Reserve has essentially bought off the economics profession.
A great many US economists list “monetary policy” in some shape or form as a specialty, or more generally, “macroeconomic policy formation and aspects of public finance”. More than half of the editors of the top seven academic economic journals are on the Fed’s payroll and serve as gatekeepers. The Fed employs hundreds of economists directly, and provides 100ds of millions of dollars in grants to outside economists.
We are quite certain that the situation in other countries is very similar. It is easy to see why practically no fundamental criticism of the monetary system is forthcoming from the economics profession. The basic assumption that money and credit should be centrally planned is rarely challenged (or almost never). Economists naturally won’t bite the hand that feeds them.
Instead, debate as a rule revolves around various “plans”. Their authors are mainly suggesting what they think are improvements on existing plans. Obviously, not all of these plans can be correct; but how can one possibly know which ones might be?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Two low interest rate persons! The Trumpsumptive president (Donald the Tremendous) can be seen here indicating the approximate size of the interest rate that will still keep us out of “major problems”.
No wonder the Dragon and his partners in crime flooded the EU banking system with “money” this past week…
This can’t be happening… please… let me wake up and realize that it was all just a bad dream…
Antiquity’s most famous patent troll Archimedes shortly after his famous epiphany in the bathtub
Groucho dispensing valuable advice Photo via imdb.com
Excavation of the “Giant of Cardiff” – but there are even more giant, more amusing and more far-reaching frauds on offer these days… Photo via paranormicstv.com
The modern Samurai futon!
Not only did they avoid another Great Depression by bold absurdity…giving the economy more of the one thing of which it clearly had too much – debt. They also carefully monitored the economy’s progress so as to avoid any backsliding into normalcy.
The gap between economic output and the debt accumulated to achieve it continues to widen…while savers are expropriated and capitalists are given an incentive to consume their capital (the “euthanasia of the rentier” propagated by Keynes has finally been achieved) – click to enlarge.
The People’s Daily. “Authoritative Person” may be hiding somewhere in the picture to the left.
Gold wants to know what it has done now… Photo credit: Ajay Verma / Reuters
The sign says: “Lying press, system of lies, scandal” – in Germany these demonstrators are somewhat condescendingly referred to as “Wutbürger” in the mainstream press (i.e., “angry citizens”). The term essentially implies that while they’re momentarily irate, they have no plan anyway, and can be expected to calm down again soon enough. This seems to have succeeded in making them even more angry. Photo credit: IMAGO
