The Fed is always the scapegoat when things go awry. Heaven forbid people actually look at all contributing factors when problems arise - ie in the previous post, a contributing factor to the Great Depression was then president Coolidge ignoring the warnings by advisers regarding the speculation and run up in debt of the private sector.
Financial crises come and go throughout history. However this time around, the world did not foresee the coming of a man called Barack Hussein Obama which has exacerbated an already bad situation. Under Obama, income growth for middle classes are a 20 year low. Under Obama, food stamp recipients are at an all time high. Under Obama, college grads have the worst unemployment rate in history. Yet, there are some here who would have you believe Obama greatest thing since sliced bread. We have had the Great Depression, the Great Recession and now, the Great Delusion. Without removing the catalyst, this depression will continue.
Blaming the Fed for everything is the typical Austrian response, thus this thread was a Serious discussion. But now, with Grand's contribution, the thread has gone Very Serious:
I am not an Austrian. They use the interest rate to control the three main functions of an economy, capital generation (to enable business), social security (from returns on investment) and money supply control. You can't claim there is going to be some conflict there. I will have a look at your link soon. But I am a bit busy at the moment.
I know what you are talking about but I think they are stupid to be doing it. There are solutions but they can't be bothered to use them.
Same old story Bunny Bernanke hasn't learnt what happened last time. Nor have the politicians. As for doing something about it ---yeah well dream on. Any politician who mentions cuts and austerity just won't be elected. That is why the Christian democratic systems are failing worldwide. The US et al may have to adopt the 1 party state system to keep up !!
There are some similarities between now and the Great Depression's early days. These are cheap credit loans available to people who should not be trusted with anything more than a piggy bank. These people then put the money not into a small business start up but gamble it on the markets. The Dow is at record highs with all this cheap money being " invested ". This is a bubble situation. When the pump is up some more then it will be time to dump. The markets could fall 1000 points a day for weeks, just as they did back then. They can't put up the cost of borrowing as they should because of the $17 trillion debt. Are the banks checking out the people asking for cheap loans properly ? They are still mismanaged as they have been for decades - so no. Hold on to your defensive stocks etc.