BobP

The (Unhappy) Results of Low Interest Rates

Your line of reasoning has no basis. The Fed is an artificial arm of the U.S. Congress, private in name only. It has no U.S. Constitutional power. In fact there is a bill to audit the Fed and, though it probably won't be abolished altogether, look forward to seeing its powers diminish. We only hope Obama will see it that way too. Bush certainly didn't.


On Jun 14 02:41 PM whidbey wrote:

> I hope you are not questioning Fed policy.
>
> The larger concern (and more interesting) is that there is no known
> way of preventing bubbles.The difference between an innovative uptrend
> and a tragic overallocation of investment is not clear at its early
> stages, and after its in full cry, no one wants to stop the party.
> We always felt that price theory prevented the miss allocations,
> but now we know bankers and the rentier class are NOT flinty eyed
> guardians, but just as easily mislead as the best of us.

Markets Will Ultimately Determine Long Term Interest Rates

If Bernanke is trying to get Congress to abolish the entire Federal Reserve System, he may be able to get his wish after all. Every move so far has proven to be the wrong move. The market came crashing after his first rate decrease, then oil shot up, and then the market came down even harder as he proceeded to drop interest rates to zero. The markets are going to seek their own interest rate level eventually so abolish the Fed.

Why Interest Rates Will Go Up

Monetary inflation is here bigtime. And inflationary pressures are here as well. Rising insurance premiums, property taxes, tuition, water, food, etc. can attest to this. However, where we can start importing goods to keep the official "inflation" numbers low, we will do that and severely hurt our employment picture.

The jobs of Bernanke and his cohorts must be eliminated. They have shown no leadership in bringing us out of depression; in fact there could be a case made that they have actually caused this deep and long recession. The market needs to set interest rates and the market doesn't need such a heavy influx of money. The money supply which is out there is plenty already. It just needs to be circulated and all this talk of recovery will eventually disappear.

Cramer's Mad Money - Haven't You People Ever Heard of a Correction? (5/7/09)

Seems as if Cramer threw tantrams until Bernanke dropped interest rates and kept dropping them till the market tanked down below 7,000. So Cramer now wants what? I'm afraid to ask.

Soaring Debt + Fed Monetization = Higher Interest Rates

If there are no loans or if there isn't any debt, there would be no need for Federal Reserve Notes, or money as we call it. No IOU's, no interest.

The Federal Reserve Can Not Account for $9 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet Transactions?

You need to read some history books. In 1913 both the Income Tax and Federal Reserve Bank were born. Government decided that they needed to spend money but where to get it from? Income tax was a politically unpopular way but taxing the rich made it at least more favorable to all. The income tax of course was not enough to cover the expenses of the government so they turned to the FED for the rest. Since very few really understood how that process worked, they were able to print money at will before the public discovered how it would affect them down the road. We all know now that this was a one-way ticket to inflation, which is the most cruel type of tax. Most cruel because it benefits those who receive it first and least of all, those that have to pay the higher prices. To ignore the FED's ability to tax is really discourteous to the American people.


On May 11 06:21 PM user396040 wrote:

> An unfair characterization of the situation. This was questioning
> of one office,the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve; it does
> not imply that "nobody at the Federal Reserve has any clue" where
> the money went. The money created by the Federal Reserve cannot really
> be characterized as "taxpayer money." That doesn't mean that we shouldn't
> be careful about its use - but it is not fairly characterized as
> money that has been collected from taxpayers. The federal government
> has been given some very complex tasks and must perform them under
> complex procedures(often mandated by Congress). It is very easy to
> mischaracterize what the government is doing but it does not lead
> to a fruitful discussion of what the hell we should be doing to get
> out of this mess.

Political Incompetence Could Drive Up the Price of Oil

"The immediate cause of higher prices now is speculation, pure and simple."

These kinds of comments are a dime a dozen. Hardly meaningful. Care to identify the speculators? Dare to tell us that the banks and their low margins are behind these speculators? Probably not.

The Odds of a Bernanke Departure

If the stock market is the indicator of economic strength, why is Bernanke to be applauded, since the market started plunging AFTER Bernanke started dropping interest rates? There could be a good case made that Bernanke caused this severe recession, if nothing else, by his poor sense of market psychology. - BobP

The White Elephant That Could Destroy Your Portfolio, Part I

>Folks, inflation sucks, but bread lines suck worse.<

And the Fed has practically guaranteed we'll have both.