How can you even look yourself in the mirror with this garbage? Sure, the intent of the Fed was never supposed to be a banker tool, but anyone with half a brain understands the partnership nowadays between Wall Street and the Fed. The Fed has done an awesome job of making wall street rich at the expense of main street. Wall Street is in control of the market, and the Fed is worried about upsetting the market. Thus, the Fed does what Wall Street wants it to do. Wealth inequality is at all-time highs because of...you guess it...the Fed. To be fair, Yellen hasn't had enough time to be judged on whether this is true or not - but if she's anything like her predecessor, or if she's anything like she was when she was vice chairman, then your statement is totally bogus. You're bringing minimum wage into this now? The market - a free market - should determine what wages should be paid for what job. There are a host of external, non-Fed related issues that affect minimum wage (immigration, etc) so you're muddying the waters here. But the reason all money is concentrated at the top is partially who's fault? Yep! The Fed. No argument here. Why don't you tell your Fed buddies to start encouraging saving and responsible behavior, not the taking out of more risk and front-running of monetary policy that got us here. Why don't you tell them also to break TBTF banks (not make them TB'erTF) down, and be cognizant of those who are on fixed income, who don't have the money to rush into the casino, who have to rely on T-Bills and savings account or CDs, etc.
I did not, unfortunately. But I did go long Euro last week. And I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Yeah, I noticed you mentionned not beeing much into equities. What's with the Holiday in express ? It means you're aghast at the question or your easter week end went wrong ? Good call anyway (especially on the euro), even if you wished the market wouldn't go up. I was long enough entering the day and didn't increase the direction - I worry a bit when reading the "risk free market" thread. If Europe follows this way tomorrow it will be sweet.
You seemingly have a warped idea of the Fed that is not permitting you so see beyond your own preconceived notion. You're not alone in your thinking. It's wrong however. You might make a beginning to understand what I am referring to if you examine and think about your post above with regard to minimum wage. The reason we have a 7.25$ minimum is because of the "free market" in labor, in the sense that if a business can hire someone for $7.25 they might! The free market is destructive to the economy in this instance. So obviously the free market does not always work to our mutual benefit! I would like to encourage you to think a little deeper.
Sorry, it's a commercial series here in the states. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=holiday+inn+express+commerical
I get it. Everyone that doesn't think as you do is wrong, I see where you're coming from. The Free Market does work, but it has to be Free. It can't be meddled with, because then it's not "Free" working, is it? In the case of minimum wages, business can hire someone for $7.25 because there are people who are willing to take that wage for the service being asked. If no one did, then businesses would have to pay more. You're upset, as a Fed cheerleader, that you're not seeing wage inflation. You're seeing inflation in food, housing, etc, but not wages. This isn't a Free Market problem. $7.25 would be just fine if people didn't have to contend with rising food and housing prices during the last 20 years- most of which can be laid at the feet of the Federal Reserve whether directly or indirectly. If my monthly living expenses double from $1000 to $2000, then I need to have my wages double also in order not to suffer a quality of living decrease, would you agree? Oh sure, don't quote hedonics about how my washing machine is 10% more efficient this year for the same price or any of that crap the Fed and BLS like to play around with. If my monthly living wages don't increase, or do so marginally, then I don't really need a wage increase to maintain the same level of living standards. Simply legislating a wage increase across the board is about as far from free markets as you can get, and it gives you Feddies your beloved inflation in wages, which you hope will then translate into a 2.0 inflation rate. Why don't you just drop money from a helicopter like Ben suggested in the first place? Seriously, why not just have the government write everyone a $100,000 check? What would be the downside? I know. Do you?
Funny commercials, never heard of them before. About high inflation the conservative and libertarians planned as a result of QE, where is it ? The fed has a hard time getting to 2% and there was no debasement of the USD, it is actually quite high compared to other major currencies. I usually lean to the rightwing to say the least but QE so far seems to have avoided the hyperinflation threat while leaving the US in a rather strong economic position, especially compared to the EU, which is just picking up with QE. I don't follow UK too closely, but their QE seems to have beared positive fruits as well.
LuisHK, I believe you are wise to base you opinion on observation and history rather than a preconceived ideology. Tsing Tao is a very smart guy, but he is also much younger than I. When I was younger, I too thought more in terms of black and white, right and wrong. As I aged and made more mistakes, I became aware of nuances, and that it was more difficult to tell right from wrong than I once thought.