Friday, September 05, 2014

Fed's Kocherlakota: 'This Nation Needs More Inflation'

by JASmius

And there it is.  The road to Weimar, already a superhighway, is about to become an autobahn:

A top Federal Reserve official on Thursday said he believes U.S. interest rates are too high, and had no "good answer" when asked why the Fed is reducing its efforts to push borrowing costs down.

"Interest rates are not low enough," Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Narayana Kocherlakota said at a Town Hall meeting in Montana, citing subdued inflation and "unacceptably high" unemployment as evidence.

The fact that the Fed has not been able to achieve its twin objectives of maximum employment and 2% inflation suggests the need for lower rates, he said.

"Given where we are with inflation, I think that it's challenging to know why we are removing stimulus from the economy at the rate that we are," he said. "I think that is a challenging question, and I don't really have a good answer."

Oh, I don't know, Narayana; maybe shoveling free debt to a public and (what's left of the) private sector that are already drowning in it, without the resources to burrow their way out of it thanks to an economy that your big-eared Mafioso's vicious economic strangulation policies won't allow to breathe, much less grow, has something to do with it.  Put aside the "Be careful what you ask for, you may get it" factor for a moment.  The Federal Reserve has had interest rates at subterranean levels for almost six years, and the American economy with which it is supposedly charged with "managing" is still at the bottom of the proverbial honey bucket.  At what point does that begin to suggest to an "economic expert" of your esteemed and august caliber that maybe this is an approach that isn't working, and is not going to work by the implement of doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on what's already failed?  Maybe, just maybe, it's time to try something else.  Like across-the-board tax cuts.  Like across-the-board de-regulation, particularly of the energy sector.  Like repealing ObamaCare.  Like entitlements privatization.  Like supply-side economics.  Like stuffing the Obamas in a capsule and launching it into deep space, and banning the Democrat party.

Okay, the latter two options are fond, cherished fantasies, but you can't fault a man for dreaming, can you?  Besides, they're no more delusional than your currency-destroying "solution".  Maybe, if you ever retire, you can spend the remainder of your days mailing out unwanted credit card solicitations to consumers who would shred them if they hadn't had to hawk their shredders to put a few more meals on their mortgaged tables.  God knows you've had enough practice at it.

No comments: