Posted tagged ‘The Fed and Interest Rates’

Must Reads For The Week 7/15/17

July 15, 2017

 

Love Your Heart? Eat Chocolate, by Joseph Mercola, at lewrockwell.com. Lets start with something that not only makes me happy, it also satisfies my confirmation bias. Chocolate is good for me! Excerpt from the article: “According to a recent study in Denmark, people who consume cocoa one to three times a month were about 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed with AFib, compared to people who ate chocolate less than once a month.”  By my calculation if I consume cocoa 30 times a month I will be 100 percent less likely to be diagnosed with AFib.

How Dumb Is The Fed? at zerohedge.com. Excerpt from the article: “….the boom of 09-17 was wrought by the Fed and paid for with fake money. It is a classic credit bubble, in other words – not genuine prosperity…..All the bubbly action… is in the financial markets, not the real main street economy. And as the Austrian School economists tell us, every boom not financed on real savings must end in a bust…..Nothing comes from nothing. Fake money produces fake prosperity. Take away the fake money… and the fake prosperity goes “poof,” too. Which is why the Fed will never, voluntarily, stop manipulating prices. It can’t let the markets return to “normal” price discovery…..All of this debt now hangs on the feeble reed of more ultra-low interest rate policies. The Fed says it is going to return its interest rate policy back to normal……No chance. It’s not that dumb.

Doctors Are Fighting To Treat Charlie Gard. Will The UK Let Them? by Arina Grossu, at thefederalist.com. This is what government-run healthcare looks like. The UK supreme court won’t allow the parents of this child to seek  treatment in the US, even though the UK won’t be on the hook for the cost of any treatments. The problem with government-run healthcare is, who makes decisions about your care? You or the government? Trust me it’s not going to be you. In totally government-run healthcare system, you are owned by the State.

Rand Paul: The Senate GOP Is Going To Keep Obamacare, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Is anyone surprised by this? No! Because the leadership of the GOP is biased toward the status quo of big government. The only way to get rid of Obamacare is to get rid of the leadership of the Republican party. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan should be replaced by Rand Paul and Thomas Massie.

Illinois “Budget Deal” Is Likely The Death Knell For The State’s $130 Billion Underfunded Pensions, at zerohedge.com. Bernie Madoff went to jail for his Ponzi scheme. These bureaucrats and politicians won’t spend a day in jail for doing the same thing Bernie Madoff did. Excerpt from the article: “…One of the ways Illinois managed to “fix” its budget crisis was to kick the can down the road on their future pension funding requirements….pensions which are only funded 35% as it is. How did they do it? …they simply decided to continue modeling future returns at a much higher rate than they’ll ever be able to reasonably achieve……In short they tweaked one simple number and, like magic, your whole funding crisis “disappears”.” Manipulating data? That’s what the global warming pretenders have been doing for decades.

Real Climate Science Shows Trump Was Right To Exit Paris, at whatsupwiththat.com. Excerpt from the article: “In actual intent and practice, the Paris Agreement is a political tool for suppressing growth, instituting global governance over energy use and economic growth, and redistributing wealth.”

Maureen Dowd: Economic Illiterate, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The reason I posted this is to get you to understand that you don’t have to take a back seat to the likes of Maureen Dowd, or any other supposed intelligent progressives in positions of “authority”, when it comes to understanding economics. Reading my site allows you to understand basic economics at a higher level than people with credentialed ignorance, like Maureen Dowd.

Mizzou Says 35% Decline In Enrollment Due To 2015 Protests, at tammybruce.com. This shows people are paying attention to the actions of the crazy leftists, and these actions have consequences. Regular people couldn’t relate to the craziness of these protesters, and many are deciding Mizzou isn’t the place for them.

Majoring In Unemployment: Ohio Wesleyan To Launch “Social Justice Major” at tammybruce.com. Why would anyone go into debt to get a Social Justice degree? If you can get a job with this degree, will the job you get allow you to pay back the debt and have a high standard of living? At some point economic reality will destroy these kinds of degrees.

Delta Doesn’t Like Competition From Subsidized Gulf Carriers But US Consumers Should Be Thankful for The Foreign Aid, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog.com. Delta is a crony capitalist business. It doesn’t like competition. It wants the government to protect it from competition.

The Other Side Of “Safety“, at ericpetersautos.com. Is the technology produced by imperfect human beings perfect? Excerpt from the article: “Technology never makes mistakes – unlike the humans who design it. Who never fail to anticipate the unanticipated. Sarcasm, in case you didn’t pick up on it. This 190 prof moonshine – distilled by arrogant technocrats like Elon Musk – is going to get people hurt as automated-driving technology comes online.” Is new safety aid technology in newer cars really safe?

NYT Laments Sharp Decline In Illegal Immigration Under Trump, at tammybruce.com. Who would have thought that stating you are going to enforce the laws, and then actually enforcing the laws, would be a deterrent? I heard someone say it isn’t Trump who is the deterrent, it is the media’s constant portrayal of him as an evil SOB, that is making illegals afraid to come here.

The Real First Responders, at lewrockwell.com. Always remember that in every situation, you are the first responder. Observing what’s going on around you (situational awareness) is the key to being a good first responder.

CARTOONS

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson

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Must Reads For The Week 8/13/16

August 13, 2016

HILLARY + TRUMP = ECONOMIC IGNORANCE

Donald Trump Turns To Herbert Hoover Economics, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Mr. Trump wants to “prime the pump with more spending and debt.” Spending financed by debt, both public and private, is what got us here in the first place. In the last 10 years the Fed printed over $4 trillion, and the Government took on $10 trillion in new debt. That’s enough pump priming don’t you think? The Keynsian Economic well has dry up. The simple answer is to allow free markets to work unencumbered by Government spending and Fed monetary expansion. Unfortunately nothing is simple when politicians and bureaucrats are involved in the decision making.

Hillary Clinton’s 5 Ideas To Fix The US Economy, at money.cnn.com. How does this sound. 1) Government spending on infrastructure, 2) debt free college, 3) “encourage” (force) companies to share profits with employees, 4) make the rich pay more in taxes, 5) raise the minimum wage. This is simply more spending and debt wrapped up in Christmas paper with a bow on top.

ECONOMIC REALITY

Bankster Flips Out: Says Japan’s Government Isn’t Doing Enough Keynsian Spending, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Decades of Keynsian stimulus by the Japanese Government isn’t enough? It is always the same answer to every economic problem more spending.

What Should The US Do If Other Countries Use Tariffs And Use Other Methods To Distort Trade, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Government intervention with free trade through tariffs, subsidies, and regulations harms the economy of the country that implements these policies. If other countries want to harm their economies with these policies; Why would we respond to such stupidity by implementing the same policies?

The Minimum Wage: Taking Away The Right To Work, by Roy Cordato, at mises.org. How many times does it have to be said: when a wage is set above what a particular job produces, that job will go away. Why do you think the number of private sector union workers has declined from 35% of the private sector work force, to just over 6% of the private sector work force since the 50’s. Unions priced themselves out of the market and the jobs went away. When it comes to raising the minimum wage, it is our benevolent politicians who are pricing low skill workers out of the work place. Political rhetoric is seen, workers losing their jobs are unseen.

Latest Jobs Data: The Worst expansion In 30 Years Continues, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org.  All the stimulus spending by government and the money printing by the Fed hasn’t worked as the planners planned. Until these two activities are stopped. This is the new normal.

Will The Bubble Pop Even If The Fed Never Raises Interest Rates, by Brendan Brown, at mises.org. We are in new territory. Does anyone know how this will end? No. But it will end with a lot of pain. All we know is, at some point the activities brought about by low interest rates and printed money will have to be liquidated.

Consumer Optimism Is Not The Key To Economic Growth, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. As we have asked before; What Comes First, Production or Consumption? You can’t consume what isn’t produced. Stimulating spending puts the cart before the horse. As Mr. Schostak says, “Demand is limited by prior production. To put it differently, his demand if fully covered (i.e., funded by the bread that he has produced). demand therefore, cannot stand by itself and be independent: it is limited by prior production….”. Interest rates coordinate production across time. Interest rates set artificially by government send false information through process of production. As a result production and consumption are mismatched. This is where we are after a decade of the Fed’s monetary manipulation.

Venezuela Has But One Choice: Capitalism or Chaos, by Carmen Elena Dorobat, at mises.org. Here is a quote by Ludwig von Mises which sums up what every article in this post: “THE ISSUE IS ALWAYS THE SAME: THE GOVERNMENT OR THE MARKET. THERE IS NO THIRD SOLUTION.”