Fed finds itself Second - Guessed

The Federal Reserve suddenly finds itself second-guessed as it tries to navigate the economy through inflation and away from recession.

Complaints center on three themes:
That the Fed didn’t act quickly enough to tame inflation,

that it isn’t acting aggressively enough now,

and that it should have been better at seeing the current crisis coming.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/18/here-are-three-things-the-fe…


In the words of Col. Potter: “Bullpucky*!*”


“The Man in the Arena.”

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

  • Theodore Roosevelt
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Doesn’t everyone love a Monday-morning quarterback?

Wendy

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Dave,

This is far more to the FED and Government reactions to Covid than Covid itself. The inflation is an opportunity to launch the demand side ideology. It is an echo of the 1947 to 1949 down turn.

The starting level of the Fed’s response to COVID was created by three years of the US Chief executive pleading with and threatening the Chairman of the central bank to reduce its interest rate to zero in order to juice the economy and help the real estate industry. The Fed used up a lot of its ammunition working towards assuaging interests who were more interested in their own wealth than in the overall condition of the Fed.

We eat what we cook.

Jeff

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Jeff,

I’d say your post is pretty political. Call it what you want, but “created by three years of the US Chief executive pleading with and threatening the Chairman of the central bank” reads pretty political to me.

What do you think Wendy?
'38Packard

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That the Fed didn’t act quickly enough to tame inflation,

I think that is a fair argument to be made.

Last 12 months of inflation:
https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-pri…

Inflation was over 5% at this point last year - well above the Fed target rate and the highest we have seen it since the great recession. It seems reasonable to me that they could have acted last year.

3 Likes

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…

The problem is, none of “our betters” that make the decisions that affect the population are actually in the arena. They are hidden away in ivory towers poo-pooing the people that said they were paying way more for things than what their numbers showed. The working people are in the arena yelling about what is going on and the repose is “let them eat cake”.

JLC

1 Like