Alan Blinder wrote an infuriating op-ed in today's WSJ where he attempts as much as humanly possible to deflect blame from the Fed, while seeming to at least begin to acknowledge some of the massive culpability they had in "acting too late". Government only admits a mistake once denials are too ridiculous to pass the laugh test even in the MSM. Blinder let slip the following doozy ... the Fed only wants to generate disinflation - a reduction in the rate of future increases -- never for prices that have spiked to actually fall:
"Notice the important subtle point here. For food and energy inflation to decline does not require those prices to fall back to earlier levels, only that they stop rising so fast."
Blinder also opines that the Fed has nothing to do with rising food and energy costs. Perhaps not directly. But easy money filters into the economy like water finding its way to the lowest point. Costs have skyrocketed for firms throughout the economy, including the food and packaged goods companies. The Fed cannot end the war in Ukraine or pump more oil, but it is ludicrous to pretend that the conditions created by the Fed did not have a major role in capital allocation that led to distortions economy-wide.
Fantastic as always, Rudy! We'll be posting a link on Twitter toot suite. We dig your long form prose! Thank you for keeping trucking on Reddit too. We're trying to RT some of your FED posts on Twitter with full credit too. We'll keep it up until they reinstate you or we get banned and have to resort to some combo of Substack and other platforms as well ;)
Two things: First, the Chomsky quote is painfully accurate as evidenced by my circle of current and past friends. I'm the least "educated" among them with only a lowly BA, while they all have MBAs and up. All of them, to a man, have ZERO ability to think outside of whatever the current narrative happens to be.
Second, I'll write it again. You need to monetize your Substack. Even if you only do it for the same reason as Señor Gato: to support Substack for being one of the final free speech platforms. Obviously, you can continue to publish everything as you do now, but ne'er-do-wells like me can feel like we're doing something.
Great article. However, I don't fully buy in to the idea that Powell is evil or corrupt or acting out of sinister motives. It may simply be that he's incompetent, doesn't understand the modern financial system (Jeff Snider at Alhambra Investments has pointed this out several times), and yes, influenced by his Fed and Wall Street associations, and his own self interest. He also inherited a mess which he clearly didn't know how to fix. Regardless, his policies are indeed dangerous and are making things worse in a hurry. At this point, I'm not sure there's a way out.
judging by your last name, you are of my people. i've often said that one day, when they round us back up to trains headed east bound, they will point to how many of our clan have been horsemen of the apocalypse of the rest of society - Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Fink et all. thankfully Jpow isn't Jewish, so if the fit finally hits the shan on his watch, maybe they will spare us the protocols of the elders of wall street angle, but i doubt it. too many of us in the wall street crowds driving the car over the cliff. loved the "patient zero" definition btw. brilliant.
Alan Blinder wrote an infuriating op-ed in today's WSJ where he attempts as much as humanly possible to deflect blame from the Fed, while seeming to at least begin to acknowledge some of the massive culpability they had in "acting too late". Government only admits a mistake once denials are too ridiculous to pass the laugh test even in the MSM. Blinder let slip the following doozy ... the Fed only wants to generate disinflation - a reduction in the rate of future increases -- never for prices that have spiked to actually fall:
"Notice the important subtle point here. For food and energy inflation to decline does not require those prices to fall back to earlier levels, only that they stop rising so fast."
Blinder also opines that the Fed has nothing to do with rising food and energy costs. Perhaps not directly. But easy money filters into the economy like water finding its way to the lowest point. Costs have skyrocketed for firms throughout the economy, including the food and packaged goods companies. The Fed cannot end the war in Ukraine or pump more oil, but it is ludicrous to pretend that the conditions created by the Fed did not have a major role in capital allocation that led to distortions economy-wide.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-isnt-transitory-but-it-isnt-permanent-either-federal-reserve-interest-rates-oil-energy-costs-prices-11654113873?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
Fantastic as always, Rudy! We'll be posting a link on Twitter toot suite. We dig your long form prose! Thank you for keeping trucking on Reddit too. We're trying to RT some of your FED posts on Twitter with full credit too. We'll keep it up until they reinstate you or we get banned and have to resort to some combo of Substack and other platforms as well ;)
Don't forget the Stalwart as one of the MSM's great Fed apologists.
I gotta say - I like these longer posts even better than the short bird app feeds!
Powell is the first non-economist to hold the chair since Volcker or Miller depending on how nit-picky you want to be. https://mises.org/library/who-central-bankers-really-are
Spot on!
A great read!
Thanks Rudy
Two things: First, the Chomsky quote is painfully accurate as evidenced by my circle of current and past friends. I'm the least "educated" among them with only a lowly BA, while they all have MBAs and up. All of them, to a man, have ZERO ability to think outside of whatever the current narrative happens to be.
Second, I'll write it again. You need to monetize your Substack. Even if you only do it for the same reason as Señor Gato: to support Substack for being one of the final free speech platforms. Obviously, you can continue to publish everything as you do now, but ne'er-do-wells like me can feel like we're doing something.
the "educated" are programmed to react in a politically correct way to the signals they are sent by those in power
Great article. However, I don't fully buy in to the idea that Powell is evil or corrupt or acting out of sinister motives. It may simply be that he's incompetent, doesn't understand the modern financial system (Jeff Snider at Alhambra Investments has pointed this out several times), and yes, influenced by his Fed and Wall Street associations, and his own self interest. He also inherited a mess which he clearly didn't know how to fix. Regardless, his policies are indeed dangerous and are making things worse in a hurry. At this point, I'm not sure there's a way out.
judging by your last name, you are of my people. i've often said that one day, when they round us back up to trains headed east bound, they will point to how many of our clan have been horsemen of the apocalypse of the rest of society - Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Fink et all. thankfully Jpow isn't Jewish, so if the fit finally hits the shan on his watch, maybe they will spare us the protocols of the elders of wall street angle, but i doubt it. too many of us in the wall street crowds driving the car over the cliff. loved the "patient zero" definition btw. brilliant.