Category Archives: Dollar
Biden Goes Big with Itty Bitty Mandate
President Biden goes big with Franklin Roosevelt style spending. Democrats Ed Markey and Jerry Nadler even have a Supreme Court packing scheme. But what did FDR have that Joe Biden doesn’t have? A Depression. A world war. And a gigantic mandate.
Fed Funny Money Ink Shortage Worries
If you’re wondering if there’s enough ink to print all the Fed funny money needed to finance our $28 trillion federal debt, relax. Pipelines are open and tankers are steaming to the rescue through the newly opened Suez Canal.
President Biden just signed another $1.9 Trillion Covid relief bill and now he’s working on a $3 trillion infrastructure plan. No worries says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is selling bonds and he’s buying.
Cure Worse than Disease?
Is the cure worse than the disease? The war against the Covid-19 virus is destroying businesses and jobs. The Wall Street Journal in an editorial titled Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown thinks maybe so:
In a normal recession the U.S. loses about 5% of national output over the course of a year or so. In this case we may lose that much, or twice as much, in a month.
Our friend Ed Hyman, the Wall Street economist, on Thursday adjusted his estimate for the second quarter to an annual rate loss in GDP of minus-20%. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s assertion on Fox Business Thursday that the economy will power through all this is happy talk if this continues for much longer…
And David Katz, the founding director of the Yale- Griffin prevention research Center, wrote in the New York Times
I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life — schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned — will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself.
…A pivot right now from trying to protect all people to focusing on the most vulnerable remains entirely plausible. With each passing day, however, it becomes more difficult. The path we are on may well lead to uncontained viral contagion and monumental collateral damage to our society and economy. A more surgical approach is what we need.
Feds Plan to Make Everyone Flush
Fed Grinch Steals Trump Christmas
You’re a Mean One, Chairman Powell
President Trump overheated his Twitter account trying to pressure the fed chairman. But it didn’t work. Jerome Powell was more than ready to to stand up to Trump by playing the Grinch and raising rates. Not only that he said he’d do the same thing two more times next year.
Fed Grinch
The Dow swooned and the president sputtered. But Bloomberg says the Fed did the right thing. Vox, however, not so much.
Meanwhile the stock market crater continues.
