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Time to End Monetary Central Planning
Time to End Monetary Central Planning
There is no way to describe current Federal Reserve policy other than as monetary confusion and misdirection. In a nutshell, Janet Yellen and the other members of the Fed’s Board of Governors have no idea what to do. Do they raise certain interest rates over which they have some direct influence? Do they keep them at their current rock bottom levels, as they have for the last six years?
On the one hand, government measured unemployment levels have fallen from their high of over 10 percent at the depth of the recent recession to 5.1 percent in September 2015.
However, there is an alternative measure of unemployment also calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes not only those currently unemployed and looking for work during the previous four weeks, but also “discourage workers” who have stopped looking for jobs who would be interested in working if they found a suitable employment; and those who are part-time who would prefer to be employed full-time. If these two additional groups are included, the U.S. unemployment rate is 10 percent, double the headline “official” level of unemployment the administration touts as a “positive” sign of the economy’s recovery.
On the other hand, price inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index seems to be barely rising. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, price inflation in August 2015 was .02 percent higher than twelve months earlier.
Again, however, when food and energy prices are subtracted out of the Consumer Price Index to leave what the government statisticians call “core” inflation, prices in August were 1.8 percent higher than a year ago. Certainly not a “galloping” inflation, but not the nearly zero price inflation rate the highline number suggests, particularly since food prices were up 1.6 percent over the year; the “drag” on measured price inflation was all due to a 15 percent decline in energy prices compared to twelve months earlier.
– See more at: http://www.cobdencentre.org/2015/10/time-to-end-monetary-central-planning/#sthash.FAcXDBZp.dpuf
Audit The Fed——And Shackle It, Too
Audit The Fed——And Shackle It, Too
The reason to be fearful about the economic and financial future is that we are in the thrall of a mainstream consensus that is downright meretricious. In attacking Rand Paul’s audit legislation, for instance, one of the time-servers on the Fed Board of Governors, Jerome H. Powell, let loose the following gem:
“As recent U.S. history has shown, elected officials have often pushed for easier policies that serve short-term political interests…..”
Perhaps Mr. Powell is a descendent of Rip Van Winkle—–and missed the last 20 years of history while doing LBOs at the Carlyle Group and helping Congress improve upon its enviable record of fiscal management while at the Bipartisan Policy Center. But whatever he was doing—snoozing or otherwise distracted—- it most assuredly was not gathering evidence that “elected officials” were putting undue pressure on the Fed for “easier policies”.
For crying out loud there is exactly zero evidence that “politicians” had anything to do with zero interest rates. And ZIRP defines the ultimate level of “ease” according to Bernanke himself, who famously described his policies as positioned at the “zero bound”.
Indeed, given the very earliest expected date for “lift-off” in June, the Fed will have pinned the money market rate at zero for 80 months running. This unprecedented tsunami of “easy money”, of course, happened with nary a Congressman or Senator darkening the door at the Eccles Building.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
