anyone naiive enough to believe that there isn't a plaza II either in action or in development after the G7 or IMF meeting? any juicy links?
This article made me think, what is white looks black, what is black looks white. The rising mortgage rates, while they may eventually dampen the housing boom, will also give a further boost to inflationary pressures Realy? How? Maybe on the very long term but..
I agree, it's a bit of an odd sentence. I think the point is that higher mortgage rates = higher mortgage payments = higher cost of living.
The confusion arises because the very meaning of the word inflation is often (intentionally) misused. Inflation is defined as: "A persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of available goods and services." The cause of the problem is too much "money". The only way to soak up the excess money is to increase interest rates, which results in REDUCED inflation because it makes it increasingly expensive to run the printing press to delay the final day of reckoning.
To reduce twin deficits: a) Cut down defense spending by $100B a year, Russians are spent and hollow, Chinese are no match, Islamics can fight only via terrorism something regular army cannot deal with etc. There is no immediate threat to US militarily. Just keep the borders tight and spend money on intelligence to be two steps ahead of the terrorists. Stop blowing up $10B a month in Iraq. US gave them freedom from a tyrant and now to make a peaceful government and live like civil people is their job, US cannot and will not do their laundry and spoon feed them, they are not infants. b) Divert the savings into Social Security and Medicare type programs to keep them from blowing up totally, divert the rest of the savings into other cuttings in federal spendings. c) Tax the recent oil rich companies like Exxon, Chevron etc. upto $100B in Success tax just one time. Again earned revenues are diverted to fund other federal, state programs. The gas prices cannot be raised to offset these taxes. d) Tax the offshore based corporations which loot $100B plus from US treasury each year. e) Encourage US businesses to set up shops in Mexico so benefit from cheap labor prices and stop the illegal immigrants from draining the US tax dollars. Might work well for broder state employers which already work with illegals. f) Cut down on expenses on average 2 Million prisoners in the jails each single day. US spends $75 a day on each single inmate. Bring this cost down to $30 and save another $30B a year. g) Accelarate the Ethanol and Hydrogen fuel type programs to get rid of dependency on foreign oil. BASICALLY US NEEDS TO SAVE $250B A YEAR IN SPENDING TO STOP THE ECONOMY FROM GETTING TOTALLY HOLLOWED UP. OTHER THAN THAT WEAK DOLLAR IS THE ONLY TEMPORARY ANSWER.