Saturday, April 27, 2019

This is interesting

Fed’s preferred core inflation gauge well below 2% target
A Federal Reserve-preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy, slowed to 1.3 percent, well below policy makers’ 2 percent objective.
So why is this important? Because the whole reason that the Feds kept raising interest rates was to combat the oncoming inflation that "economists" believed was coming. Of course, the other thing that raising interest rates does is slow the economy.

From 2008-2016, the Fed raised interest rates twice. Once from 0.25 to 0.50 in 2015. The next time was in the final quarter of 2016 from 0.50 to 0.75 (after Trump had been elected). Since then, the Fed has raised the rates seven times. Only one quarter since Trump has been President has the Fed not increased the rate to "control inflation" (and subsequently slow down the economy).

In eight years, Obama saw the Fed raise rates once. In two years, Trump has seen them raised eight times. (I count the Dec15th 2016 as a Trump rate raise since it only affected his Presidency). So when Trump criticizes the Fed and complains that he feels like they are trying to hamstring his economy, there is a valid argument to make.

The reality is that the Fed literally did everything in it's power to help the economy during the Obama years, while with the exception of one quarter, the Fed has done everything in it's power to slow down the economy since Trump has been President. That is not a subjective observation, it's a fact.

The caveat being that those who have been running the Fed will tell you that it was about slowing down inflation, not the economy. But when inflation remains stubbornly below normal, you have to either figure that they were wrong about their reasons, or their reasons are not as straight forward as we might think. 

12 comments:

Commonsense said...

If the Fed raises rates absent of any indication of inflation in an election year then you know it's political.

H U Khan said...

off topic but too good to not post, maybe will help roger.

@Huk06

Wife: “What are the scratch marks on your neck?

Husband: Me and the guys went kayaking when out of the blue a seal appeared and slapped me on my neck with an Octopus!!!

Wife: Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to believe something as ridiculous as that?"

https://twitter.com/Huk06/status/1121122238898561024

Anonymous said...




If Trump thinks he can get more than 3% economic growth, he's dreaming


https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-3percent-20170519-story.html?



heh.



Anonymous said...




The number of uninsured climbed by 1.4 million from 2016 to 2018, according to a report out last week from the Congressional Budget Office. Naturally, this led those on the left to blame the Trump administration for its Obamacare “sabotage.”

But the data in that report — which was released on the same day the Mueller report came out and largely ignored — tells an entirely different story.

All of the increase in the uninsured over the past two years — all of it — is the result of the massive rate increases Obamacare’s mandates and regulations caused. According to the Health and Human Services Dept., premiums in the individual insurance market doubled from 2013 to 2017. They shot up again in 2018.

For those eligible for Obamacare subsidies, the rate increases were meaningless. The amount they had to pay didn’t change much, and in many cases went down.

But for the millions of middle-class Americans who buy insurance coverage on the individual market and aren’t eligible for Obamacare subsidies, the result has been financially devastating.

The CBO report shows the impact, plain as day.


https://issuesinsights.com/2019/04/25/cbo-report-1-4-million-lost-health-insurance-since-2016-and-obamacare-is-to-blame/


caliphate4vr said...

But rat we can get a free Pap smear

Anonymous said...



Anonymous caliphate4vr said...

But rat we can get a free Pap smear


indeed we can. maybe trump can administer one to the alky, seeing as how he's grabbed him by the pussy and won't let go.

Anonymous said...

Unlike his predecessors, Trump has vowed that he will not cooperate with any congressional inquiry. He is effectively declaring lawmakers powerless over him. This, warn the experts, puts the nation in uncharted territory and threatens to erode its democratic foundations.

Presidents clash with Congress, at times fiercely. The founders wanted it that way. But in declaring war on congressional oversight, Trump is not looking to maintain a balance of powers. He is looking to destroy the balance of powers.

Anonymous said...



But in declaring war on congressional oversight, Trump is not looking to maintain a balance of powers. He is looking to destroy the balance of powers.

trump's not declaring war on congressional oversight.

he's simply telling those who would perpetuate this endless cycle of harassment to go fuck themselves. and rightly so.

nothing that congress is seeking serves any legislative or constitutional purpose. they simply seek to fuck with him, ad infinitum.

3.2% Q1 '19 GDP.

lowest unemployment and best economy since i was in elementary school.

ISIS decimated.

respected - and feared by all the right people - around the globe again.

and democrats seek to tear this man down and destroy all of the above, simply because they lost an election and refuse to accept the result.

i'm old enough to remember when some feckless old cunt told us that refusing to accept the results of an election was a direct threat to our democracy. and a coup was attempted in her honor. i guess she was right.





Anonymous said...



so mueller and his merry band of asshats were either incompetent, corrupt, or both -




Kimberley Strassel

Verified account

@KimStrassel
Follow Follow @KimStrassel
More

"How did Mr. Mueller spend two years investigating every aspect of Russian interference...and not consider the possibility that the dossier was part of the Russian interference effort?" https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-russians-and-the-dossier-11556232721?shareToken=st05b24cba232b4844a52edcf0eeb83b7f … via @WSJ





...Mueller’s team went down every blind alley relating to its investigation—except where Obama-era officials were likely culpable for relevant unethical or illegal behavior.

- VDH

https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/24/mueller-investigation-was-driven-by-pious-hypocrisy/


C.H. Truth said...

If Democrats can explain to us what Donald Trump's personal financial records (when he was a private citizen) have to do with overseeing the office of the Presidency...

and they can (as is required with any subpoena) tell us exactly what crime the President (as President) has committed that can be substantiated with his personal private tax returns and financial records...

Then they might have a shot when this thing makes it to the USSC.


But if their argument is that they can do it, just for the sake of doing it... then they will lose, and they should.

Anonymous said...

What the Socialist Democrats are saying is During the 8 years of Obama the IRS was so incompetent that as they approved Trumps Returns they allowed him to cheat and never ever filed a complaint.


Joe Biden on The View was a tragic failure.

Anonymous said...

When do those $2,500 a year premium reductions kick in????

Obama promised.

Note Every Socialist Democrat has publical pointed out Obamacare is a Failure.