Our text today is a phrase commonly uttered by:
Alcoholics, Pyromaniacs, Philanderers, and the US Fed Chairman?
Don't get me wrong, I think Bernanke and the Fed have done a great job addressing the credit freeze by expanding liquidity, taking shakier paper for collateral, opening the discount window wider, and yes even by having a hand in the Bear-Sterns sale (though this last achievement I agree is debatable).
However, the rate-cutting is just plain out of hand. The dollar is shot, commodity prices soaring, inflation is over 4%, the markets have been calmed, but the Fed is gonna cut the funds rate again.
Why?
"Hi, I'm Ben and I'm addicted to negative short term interest rates"? probably not.
I honestly think this is another paradoxical case of the Fed caving in to political pressure in order to save its vaunted independence.
1 comment:
Well said. And let's stop pointing fingers at emerging markets, OPEC, food shortages etc. for higher prices and depreciating dollar. Repeat after me: "inflation is always and everywhere..."
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