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Re: Somebody please put the FED out of our misery.

By: Cactus Flower in ALEA | Recommend this post (0)
Thu, 18 Dec 14 2:01 AM | 57 view(s)
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Msg. 16600 of 54959
(This msg. is a reply to 16598 by Down And Out Man)

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Ideally, the Fed is fighting inflation rather than deflation. In those circumstances, interest rates are higher.

I get that interest rates are low. But the Fed has more than savers to think about. If they raise rates they will choke the economy and encourage deflation. That's what the EU has been trying and it is having the expected effect. Moribund growth, weak investment etc. A weak economy does no one any good.

The pickle the world economy has been in is serious and we haven't emerged from it yet. The US Fed has actually done a better job than most in protecting the US economy. But everyone has to bear some of the burden of the 2008 catastrophe. Savers included.

If the US congress had permitted infrastructure investment, the US would likely be in a better place. But it would have needed to borrow more.

The good news about low interest rates is that all sorts of projects are feasible that otherwise are not. But US policy-makers have ignored the opportunity because of "the public debt".

Personally, I think the US would have been better served by issuing another $1tn in debt and investing more in alternative energy, rail networks, cable networks and computer security. The sort of projects that deliver cash flows and other benefits in the long run. If you can borrow at 2% and return 5%, why wouldn't you do it?




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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Somebody please put the FED out of our misery.
By: Down And Out Man
in ALEA
Thu, 18 Dec 14 1:41 AM
Msg. 16598 of 54959

roads and bridges is a federal government rather than a federal reserve thing

Exactly, which is what I was implying by saying maybe we (Congress) should do that rather than relying on the Fed to prop things up.

re savers: if you are talking about quantitative easing, they have already stopped doing it. but how is pumping the stock and bond markets wiping out savers?

Yep, stopped it finally, but still keeping Fed Funds rate at zero and doing all they can to keep the mentality intact for short, intermediate and long rates far below historic norms.

They've already killed the savers. Today is SIX year anniv of "zero rates" policy.

Do you know any old people that have had their interest income completely removed from their lives? It's ugly and painful. Not completely of the Fed's doing, no doubt. But they've had a huge hand in it.

Some of us are financially "astute" enough to weather that and make money in the markets w/o relying on interest income. I feel for the millions of oldsters that lost their CD income for a lost decade. They're definitely among the losers.


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