In 2011, unemployment was at a near crisis level. The jobless rate was stuck around 9 percent nationally, an unusually high number due to the continuing effects of the financial crash.
House Democrats were aghast. “With almost five unemployed Americans for every job opening, too many people remain jobless because of a lack of work, not a lack of wanting to work,” said Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Tex. So in early November 2011, they introduced a bill to reauthorize Federal unemployment benefits, an insurance program designed to aide those looking for work.
Behind closed doors at the Federal Reserve however, the conversation struck a different tone.
The Federal Reserve’s mandate is to promote “maximum employment,” which essentially means: print enough money so that everyone who wants one has a job. Yet according to transcripts released this month after the traditional five-year waiting period, Federal Reserve officials in November 2011 were debating whether unemployment was caused by bad work ethics and drug use – rather than by the greatest financial crisis in 80 years. This debate then factored into the argument over setting monetary policy.
“I frequently hear of jobs going unfilled because a large number of applicants have difficulty passing basic requirements like drug tests or simply demonstrating the requisite work ethic,” said Dennis Lockhart, a former Citibank executive who ran the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank. “One contact in the staffing industry told us that during their pretesting process, a majority—actually, 60 percent of applicants—failed to answer ‘0’ to the question of how many days a week it’s acceptable to miss work.”
The room of central bankers then broke into laughter.
Charles Plosser, the president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, cited “work ethic” as a common complaint he heard in his district, both in rural and inner city areas. A contact of his who owned 60 McDonald’s restaurants said “passing drug tests, passing literacy tests, and work ethic are the primary problems he has in hiring people.”
His wife, he noted, had attended a meeting in Philadelphia where employers cited literacy, work ethic, and drugs as impediments to hiring.
It was hardly the first time these bankers blamed unemployment on the unemployed, rather than, say, bankers. In an April meeting that year, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeff Lacker told participants that “Several firms told us of difficulty finding adequate workers, because they preferred to collect unemployment benefits or can’t pass drug tests.” He reiterated that point in November, saying that in West Virginia he was told by an employment agency that “unquestionably the biggest problem in hiring skilled and unskilled workers was the inability to pass a drug test.”
Lacker’s Federal Reserve district includes West Virginia. In August, he again spoke of “widespread reports about hard drug use, OxyContin and methamphetamine, in Appalachia and other rural parts of our District—in particular, Appalachia.”
Apparently his colleagues responded with laughter again, because he then said “Drug abuse and the hardship involved in unemployment aren’t really laughing matters.” Usage, he noted, isn’t higher than the national norm in West Virginia. “It’s hard to pin this down quantitatively,” he continued, wondering if there was “something meaningful there as a contributor to impediments to labor market functioning.”
These debates took place within the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve body tasked with “influenc[ing] the availability and cost of money and credit to help promote national economic goals.” The debate revealed a split within the Federal Reserve system between “hawks” who worry more about inflation than unemployment, and “doves” who believe that too many are going without jobs. Typically, “hawks” tend to lean to the right politically, and “doves” tend to lean slightly more to the left.
Lacker is one of the most “hawkish” members of the FOMC, which means he tends to be in favor of higher interest rates and higher unemployment to ward off inflation. In 2015, Lacker ascribed increasing inequality to the lack of college education among the poor
Sarah Bloom Raskin, a dovish member of the Board of Governors, countered by saying that unemployment was a function of the financial crisis. “The economy remains mired in the worst slump since that of the 1930s,” she said.
Daniel Tarullo, another dovish Federal Reserve governor appointed by President Obama, called the focus on drug use a “red herring.” He said, “We had that problem 25 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago; we have it today; and we’re going to have it 5 years from now.” He cited housing debt from the largest housing bubble in history as a core driver of unemployment.
The transcripts illustrate how the controversial method of picking Federal Reserve officials plays out in setting monetary policy: The three men who cited work ethic or drug use as a cause of unemployment instead of the financial crash were picked by regional private sector businessmen to lead the local Reserve banks.
The Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed in 2010 mandated that the Federal Reserve Board in Washington approve the choices of private businessmen, but the Board has yet to reject any suggested candidates. The board members who cited the financial crash as causing unemployment were appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The concept of having private business interests selecting public officials has been criticized by experts. As Wharton professor and author of “The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve” Peter Conti-Brown put it, “It’s not clear at all that the opaque and obscure process by which the private sector selects the Reserve Bank presidents produces superior central bankers than the public process used to select the remaining principal officers of the United States.” This controversial selection process risks having, as he put it, “a system for enhancing the influence of certain slices of society on our central banking policy.
Lacker and Lockhart are retiring this year. Advocates and experts are putting pressure on the Richmond Federal Reserve to replace retiring Reserve Bank Presidents with someone more attuned to the reality of unemployment. Fed Up, a coalition of advocates seeking to shift the Fed from its traditionally pro-bank policies, is seeking to have the regional bank President’s picked with more attention to the needs of workers.
Jordan Haedtler, deputy campaign manager of Fed Up, lashed out at Lacker’s comments as related in the newly released transcripts. “Even nine years into the recovery, workers are still struggling to get the wages and hours they need,” Haedtler said. “Yet with unemployment above double digits in huge swaths of President Lacker’s district in 2011, he was citing anecdotes about drug use and desire to collect unemployment benefits as key reasons why employers weren’t hiring. Rather than looking for solutions and talking to people who were out of work, he was seeking excuses from employers.”
President Donald Trump has a number of vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board to fill as well. He has been highly critical of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. He argued, without citing evidence, that she pursued monetary policy goals to help support Barack Obama and elect Hillary Clinton. If Yellen and Tarullo follow custom and step down from their board slots in 2018, Trump could appoint a majority of Federal Reserve board members within two years.
Despite the importance of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve keeps the transcripts of internal deliberations of the committee that sets monetary policy out of public view for at least five years. But the people who attend those meetings take other jobs — some in the financial services industry. In 2010, incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa questioned whether it was appropriate for the Fed to withhold its deliberations for so long. “If the Fed’s full transcripts can be released sooner, they should be,” he said.
The debate in the Fed and within Congress was ultimately resolved. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates low. And in 2011, a new wave of recently elected Tea Party Republicans and Democrats finally compromised on language to cut unemployment benefits.
Neither West Virginia senator, Shelley Moore Capito nor Joe Manchin, would comment on Lacker’s discussion of the West Virginia drug epidemic and its relationship to unemployment. The Appalachia region, including West Virginia, went strongly for Trump in the 2016 election.
A recruiter, left, takes the resume of an applicant during a job fair, in Philadelphia in 2014.
The same old out of touch decision makers from Wall Street and the academic ivory towers are there today – and will keep Trump’s economy in stagnation just as they kept Obama’s.
President Trump was right when he said the economy was still in a great economic stagnation. He needs to replace these people.
Huge omission here: Employers are illegally rejecting otherwise qualified people by getting into the credit score data sites.
They just never get back to the applicant.
If you call and call and email and get ignored…or brushed off with no reason given…that’s probably it.
At about the same time the Federal Reserve gave fellow banksters and corporate crooks $16 Trillion dollars for “unspecified” reasons. That is over 2 years of our GDP – two years of the average person’s salary was simply handed over to their supporters and friends… with no public tracking or records!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/#5fae4e946877
The Federal Reserve is corrupt to the core and keeps the status quo and decline of the middle-class (of by and for the Deep Stat) intact.
I recently read a blog post from Paul Krugman (oh how the mighty have fallen) who was claiming that we’re “basically at full employment”, etc. and hey, problem solved. NewsView’s depiction of the problem here is spot on: the standards/baselines for measuring economic mobility and stability are ridiculously low. They capture nothing about household DEBT, insane rents, lack of well-paying jobs and just the crazy cost of living for everything, especially health care, in most cities.
These people are utterly out of touch with the realities of ordinary Americans. Krugman gave a talk in my former university town during his grand tour about 10 years ago. A man in the audience asked him about the future of the local economy which used to be manufacturing-based. A PAINFULLY AWKWARD SILENCE filled the historic amphitheater for at least 5-10 seconds, followed by an inconsequential PK response. He had been drinking a little during lunch, his cheeks flushed and a soupcon too jocular for the occasion. But the question clearly sobered him up a bit. I’ll never forget it.
Back then, I was drunk on the PK mojo. But over the years I saw he was just peddling his own story like everyone else. Feet of clay. I now look back on that moment in 2007 and think, that’s the elite who was and still is convinced Pres. Obama was one of the greatest presidents ever, the one who never touched Wall St., let the working class kids fight sordid Persian wars, pushed the Dow hit to 20K while 95% Americans are wallowing in debt and living paycheck to paycheck with little or no mobility or security. While college costs reach record heights, student debt balloons… it goes on.
So none of the comments above surprise me at all. The moral poverty and ignorance of these people is as infuriating as it is embarrassing (to others, not themselves).
The tinderbox of millennial-led revolution is ready, what or who will light the fuse?
Or maybe that’s wishful thinking. It’s more likely that it will never happen. Distracted and cosseted, victims of our own success, it’s more likely that they or we will just look the other way until it’s too late and democracy has permanently slipped from our grasp. Gibbon and some other enlightenment and even classical thinkers wrote about this tendency of societies to crumble under elite corruption and plebeian complacence.
A lot has happened with the Bretton Woods institutions since 2011. The level of intellect here, at the Intercept and both in the article and in the comments, is impressive. And so the lack of any mention [anywhere at the Intercept] of the network of lawyer-whistleblowers, who are acting at the transnational level in a coalition for the rule of law, at the behest of over 180 finance ministers, to identify and end the corruption while finally implementing the inevitable system reset, is perplexing if not telling. Anyone?
You know the economy is beyond the grasp of economists when they don’t realize that taxes + healthcare costs may consume as much as six months of a family’s income. You know economic policy will remain inherently lopsided, under any president’s watch, as long as federal poverty line consists only of the cost of groceries for a year — without provision for energy or shelter. Translation? No matter how poor you feel it’s all in your head. Your solidly middle class by Uncle Sam’s new math — if only because you can afford more than a bag of groceries!
Bankers and economists are largely out of touch for the simple reason that garbage in = garbage out. Government stats, after all, are only as honest as their methods. Unfortunately, they haven’t been interested in grasping what is going on for the other 99 percent since the early days of globalization. And with good reason: no political leader wants to deal with the social and political fallout — if not out-and-out civil unrest — of the understanding that living-wage jobs and middle class living standards on the downswing for good (and not just in the U.S. but much of the First World). So we can see — looking between the cracks in the statistical veil — a picture deemed unfit our consumption.
To lie us into complacency — or better yet, into pointing the finger of blame at one another — is better in the eyes of those who lead than to hand us pitchforks with which to demand a sea change to what has, in practice, been a plutocracy for at least three decades now.
Nice post
Amazing that I actually agree with Darrel Issa for once.
It is definitely time to drug test the bankers.
Remove marijuana from the list of substances being tested for, and matters will improve dramatically.
Cannabis is the one “banned substance” that can’t be washed out of the system over a period of a few days. Unlike other substances, it isn’t water-soluble. The chemical tested for is an inactive metabolite stored in fat, which doesn’t indicate a current status of ingestion. The metabolite can provide a positive result for up to a month for some heavy users with high body fat ratios; even occasional cannabis users can expect the risk of a positive result for at least a week after the last ingestion.
There are several ironies to this: 1) a positive result from an inactive metabolite doesn’t even imply impairment. 2) people subject to random drug testing are more inclined to switch from marijuana to other substances- most people can purge alcohol, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opioids, and other water-soluble chemicals from their system within1-2 days24 by chugging enough water, B vitamins, and herbal diuretics. And most employers do not make a Federal case out of objecting to after-work drinking, as opposed to after-hours cannabis use. 3) Because the synthetic THC designer drugs aren’t yet tested for, people subject to drug tests are known to switch from natural cannabis- despite the fact that the synthetic drug is fraught with a risk of poisonous side effects unknown in marijuana or hashish use.
Anyone ready to roll out guillotines onto the streets yet?
We have a free market system. If employers actually wanted to hire people for certain jobs they simply have to offer higher pay. That would attract people who could pass drug tests, who were literate, and who had a good work ethic. It’s really that simple. There are plenty of qualified people willing to work. These complaints about not being able to find workers are very suspect when you consider the facts.
Couldn’t agree more ! Well said, sir
Having been an informed advocate of the Austrian School of Economics since 1973, I find it fascinating that no Keynesian bothers to familiarize themselves with the basic concepts of Austrian School analysis. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974 for his work on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory which demonstrates that it is Keynesian policy itself ( which is practiced by the Federal Reserve) that is the cause of mass unemployment, the boom/bust cycle, recessions and depressions. Even if the Fed was doing what you people think is “the right thing”, it would be distorting the economy and would lead to disaster.
Since you “progressives” are afraid to engage such definitive analysis, one can only assume that you suspect in your heart that we are right.
https://mises.org/library/hayek-meet-press
– Friedrich Hayek
I agree with this. See: Reaganomics – Thatchernomics
While I’m not inclined to defend the Fed’s employment stance, it is a fact that in major cities, there is a substantial segment of the adult population who can’t read. According to Philadelphia’s Center for Literacy, 52 percent of adult Philadelphians are functionally illiterate.
Read the parts of the transcript this article refers to and discover what a gross mischaracterization the headline is. The Intercept is where I come to avoid this kind of flagrant sensationalism and incitement. Such a disappointment.
Drug test the bankers so we all get a laugh
These people are bankers, not thinkers. Maybe if we had more thinkers as bankers, uh…………well, you get the point.
Instead of increasing drug tests, why not ending drug tests and the Fed? http://endthefed.org/
The people that sit on the Federal Reserve Boards are use to a certain level of anainity outside there personal communities. We need to end this condition.
The left community needs to single out these people who work against our interests on the Federal Reserve Board and apply localized pressure to them. We need to embarrass them in front of their neighbors, work colleagues, churches and any other institutions they belong to or frequent.
We need to harass them and teach them what social pressure can do. We need to destroy them before they destroy us.
Has anyone ever tested Jamie Dimon for marijuana? For that matter – Why aren’t bank execs, and white collar workers, in general – subject to random testing just like everyone else?
I have been unemployed for four months as of today. With over 20 years of experience in electronics and a great portfolio of licenses and certifications I expected to easily find another position well before now. All I can find are $10-$15 per hour positions that fit with my work history. I was earning better money with no experience at my first position back in 1983.
Over the last four months I have filled out at least 50 applications in response to job board postings and have received but a single call in return. Only because I have several useful skills that they were looking for in my CV did I even rate a response at all.
Yesterday I went to my first interview and hopefully this will work out for me.
I asked the HR manager if they had received a lot of applications and she said that they had, but I did not ask for a number. So five unemployed persons for every job posting results in a lot of applicants for each open position.
Supposedly I live in the area with the lowest unemployment rate in my state.
I do not drink, smoke or do any kind of drugs, legal or not. I was my previous employer’s most reliably attending employee. I have never been arrested. I have good credit. I would have no difficulty passing a ‘literacy test’, so none of these factors are interfering with my gaining employment.
Dream on, Mr. Federal Reserve banker. Our new President is addressing the real reason why so many of us are unemployed though I know that your sort will do everything in your power to interfere with him.
Dow 20k!!! ????
They only allow drugged food to be sold in USA so that they can control people, they poison our water with only they know what, also to control us (the 99%) they cheat, steel, and rob us of our liberty and freedom and than they can’t understand what is causing all these problems with people, which they only need as obedient slaves to keep their empires going.
In the last five years I have been unemployed two and a half years. Until the last five years I had an unbroken work record of professional and management positions. My unemployment has just run out again. I can pass a drug test at any time. I have no criminal record. I am educated and hold a Master’s degree. English is my first language. My health is good. My communication skills are excellent and my computer skills are current. I am a woman over fifty. I know several other older women in the same boat. There are clearly other issues impeding our employment than drug use or laziness.
I myself have been unemployed for 3 years after being laid off after 12 years of service in which I won my company’s highest innovation award. Since then, I have only been able to get temp work, even though I have upgraded my skills with a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification (supposedly among the best to have for my software/systems analyst profession) and some training in modern programming (HTML, etc.). I rarely get a response to my applications other than a form rejection. There is a delusion out there that we are somehow at ‘full employment’, based upon the completely meaningless ‘how many people have applied for/are on unemployment’ stats. Corporate America and it’s f-ed up HR policies refuse to give any of the long term unemployed the slightest consideration. You are basically screwed unless you either have an inside connection to get you past the roadblock, or you can find a small business owner who doesn’t follow corporate HR bullshit orthodoxy. It is incredibly frustrating and depressing- I can’t get low level jobs (freaking Target rejected me recently) because I am either overqualified or too long out of work, and can’t get more appropriate work to my skill level because the HR doofs reject me out of hand for being unemployed too long. It is a brutal, cruel catch-22. And I can honestly say every employer I have ever had since my early years thought I was an excellent person to have around, smart, hard working, and the sort of person that makes work more enjoyable by just being a good guy with a sense of humor. I wish you luck, I seriously wonder if we long term unemployed need to form some sort of union, to both argue for ourselves and do good works to prove that we are willing and able to get stuff done.
The only good satanist is a dead satanist
” “I frequently hear of jobs going unfilled because a large number of applicants have difficulty passing basic requirements like drug tests or simply demonstrating the requisite work ethic,” said Dennis Lockhart, a former Citibank executive who ran the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.” ”
The big banks are our problem they steal our money without us even knowing.
‘basic requirements like DRUG TESTS’…..BASIC, this is bullsh*t to the max…..phk your drug tests! This drug war crap is just more authoritarians telling us what we can and cannot do.
“We don’t need no stinking (phking) badges, or papers for that matter!!
Really? Would you hire YOU to do anything…for like money?
I have a work ethic. And it’s simple: You pay me a living wage and I’ll work.
Communist ingrate.
Fed garble speak, “lil monetary tinker here, little fiscal trifle here, some bond buying here, some over night short end zirp-pity-do-da”.
Revenue neutral, austerity, economic blood-letting.
Public private plunder partners, picking winners and losers, more QE, corporate welfare trough, automatic
stabilizers, temporary non benefits shor
…short term employees, blah blah zz zzz zz
Driving through rural and left behind communities, dow 20k banner waving above the truck…why aren’t we greeted as saviors…confused looks, hollowed and hopeless faces…come on, we’re handing out free boot straps.
…Barabbas!…Barabbas!…Barabbas!
The biggest joke of the economic downturn in 2007-08 is that it was the housing bubble;it was the unemployed; ect…
it was the banks and financial institutions aligned with government policy; they paid to have the laws enacted….just plain out and out thievery by them all … what gets me the most is that the press continues to write some bullshit that it was something else. Savings and loans in the 1980’s under Reagan was no different….if you/one understands what the policy change is about….you will be financially ‘rewarded'; Dodd-Frank changed the game nicely for all financially(Clinton Adm) and the people pay and lose financially. Pay attention to the policy enacted….it will happen again. Remember nothing was going well in our economy at the end of Clinton administration and the beginning of the Bush administration, until everybody was allowed a housing loan by the banks/financial institutions with no job or poor credit…who loans like this ? Nobody, unless there is a buck to be made…(legalized extortion).Funny how the rich are still getting richer and with this administration it will expand even more at our expense.
The problem with the poor, is that they’re so stupid, they never invested in a suit and tie, so that they could look respectable enough to open their own communal bank with it’s own printing machine, so that money could be printed and distributed to all the sister banks, so that everybody could then be rich. That’s the problem with the poor. They have this idea that if they work hard, they’ll get ahead. All you need is your own bank, you stupid poor people.
I agree, the problem with poor people is they don’t have any money.
Corporate welfare far exceeds social welfare
http://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2014/03/14/where-is-the-outrage-over-corporate-welfare/#366d14246881
Federal Reserve bankers ascend to their positions by having no compassion or empathy for others. A large percent of them are probably sociopathic or worse. They see every population as a undifferentiated pool of (preferably slave) labor, existing only for their manipulation and exploitation.
My son is a millennial, and former Bernie Sanders supporter. When Bernie lost the nomination my son voted for Trump. When I asked him why, he told me “to bring on the revolution”. He saw Trump as unstable, and maybe even crazy, and hoped he might become the catalyst that incites us to rebuild the progressive party as we unite against him. He said that we will not do it otherwise. We will have 4 horrible years but this might be the price we have to pay to get something better, a progressive party that can reign in the unbridled greed of the power elite.
Welcome, my friends, to the “new optimism”. A new dawn rising from the ashes of Trump. It is the only thing many of our young people are holding on to now.
I hate to break it to your but your son is lacking something between his ears. Who raised him to be this way?
To: Joe
When people become desperate they do desperate things. Many of our young people are now in a state of indentured servitude not seen since before the American Revolution due to student loan unforgivable debt for educations that have not resulted in adequate paying work.
Their seeing Trump as the bad medicine or chemotherapy needed to cure the cancer of elitist oppression may not be irrational. The Republican gathering in Philadelphia that just ended in a way that the members felt the need to sneak out of town is telling of how little regard the people have for those only in power due to the corrupting influence of money in politics justified immorally via the absurdity of corporate personhood.
Why do you feel the need to blame the Mom when the problem is money in politics (the TBTF Banks)? Who did you vote for and why? The logical choice was Bernie since Clinton was up to her eyebrows with the TBTF Banks. The capitulatin’ Dim-O-Craps (DNC took out Bernie) wanted Hillary BECAUSE she WAS tight with those money hoarders.
What do you think gives you the right to say that this person’s son is “lacking something between the ears?” I happen to agree with him. Though I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump (I voted Green), I’m intelligent enough to know that we would have continued down the same ruinous path under Clinton. A third party was the best choice. Barring that, Trump was our only hope to turn this thing around before it’s too late.
This is the medicine you have to take joe for the corruption you caused in voting for either of the two embedded parties. I agree with Lori’s son and will revel at the pain you are going to endure and will happily watch your suffering all the way down through your grand children. Maybe one day air between the ears people like you will vote for someone that will do yourselves some good. Until then wallow in your own self pity and take a big dose of the medicine you have earned.
Ah, Joe… you only have two feet, here’s hoping you only have one bullet.
Joe, since you only have two feet, here’s hoping you only have one bullet .
Lori, it has already mobilized the left in ways not seen in 40 years. You think anyone would wake up under Clinton? Trump is only 1 week into office and he’s already had an executive order halted under constitutional grounds. We’re sick of status quo robber baron democrats hiding behind the facade of working class issues. They don’t give a fuck about any of us. At least Trump is a great bad-guy face for the establishment, something most people can rally against. Clinton would have been a pacifier for the working classes, a fraud and deception giving the illusion of progress. If you voted for Clinton, it might be you who is lacking between the ears,
I have the same hopes as your son. But thankfully here in NY I could vote for Jill Stein.
Lori, I would reassure you the your son is far ahead of the curve. Clinton could/would not have saved the middle class, people such as the Clintons would only work to help continue the evisceration of the middle class. I too contemplated voting for Trump to help bring about the demise of this American disaster.
Trump is an idiot. A narcissist. A sociopath who believes he is actually smarter than everyone else despite all evidence to the contrary. What better moron to end this sad parade of clowns than Trump. Worse, they are retarded reprobates.
Simply exceptional Americans.
Boston University studied 576 people who reported using illegal/prescription drugs to medicate chronic pain. That’s 81%!
So many have pain that cannot be cured! Palliative measures can cost a family it’s home, & food on the table. Pain clinic’s(reputable one’s) make a mint jamming needles into spines, joints, with minimal relief. It costs less for a $10 dose of heroin. Try limping into an interview and even if you ARE skilled, they will want a physical, proof of tobacco cessation, and oh yeah, if you can’t learn quick enough through the pain, they can fire you (at least in Ohio) for pretty much any reason they decide. File for Disability, and wait 2 years, and several court appearances where they will deny, deny, then inform you there is not enough medical evidence! Back to ruining what little money you have! F&%& the crevasse between these idiots who have no idea what strength truly is.
Monetary policy can be a poor choice for dealing with a financial crisis. They needed fiscal policy and should have used the downturn to modernize the the economy.
America is running on empty.
Especially when the interest rates are as low as they are. And the only people who use fiscal policy are republicans, who then scream “deficits, deficits, deficits” when democrats are in power. And the democrats are so spineless, and so scared of the republicans, they conveniently forget there’s such a thing as fiscal policy.
Democrats almost deserve to lose elections.
When it comes to offshoring jobs — or replacing American workers with foreign visa replacement workers or undocumented (illegal) workers, any excuse will do, and I’ve heard the lamest, most nonsensical and idiotic during my lifetime, even after I’ve aced the preliminary tests time and again, they will cite age, or overqualified, or something else.
In Seattle in the early 1990s, a local machine shop claimed they were relocating because they couldn’t find dependable workers, which I found difficult to believe and since I had just been laid off, I approached them with my many references as to my dependability and work ethic.
Never heard back from them and relocate they did!
Time to end the Fed.
Lacker is one of the most “hawkish” members of the FOMC, which means he tends to be in favor of higher interest rates and higher unemployment to ward off inflation.
INFLATION? “… he tends to be in favor of …. higher unemployment…”
In other words these ‘people things’ know understand and support a monetary system (est 1913 US fed reserve act as a privately owned company monopoly) that is responsible for unemployment. In other words a system that creates unemployment. In other words a system that madates that persons should not receive life support. In other words a system that condemn persons to death for the benefit of not allowing the valuations of the wealthy to become less worthy.
Jesus turned the tables on these ‘people things’ for a reason.
> “In 2011, unemployment was at a near crisis level. The jobless rate was stuck around 9 percent nationally, an unusually high number due to the continuing effects of the financial crash.”
Did you know that in order to be considered employed according to the international standard set by the International Labor Organization, working one hour during the reference week taken into account for unemployment statistics is enough ? You should use the U-6 rate, which is much more accurate (and therefore nearly taboo). U-6 for 2011 : between 15.20 and 16.20 %. http://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-rate
> “widespread reports about hard drug use, OxyContin and methamphetamine”
Come on, they’re schedule II (= preferable to marijuana)… “Those are rookie numbers in this racket. I myself…”
> “In 2015, Lacker ascribed increasing inequality to the lack of college education among the poor.”
Link to apple.com ? And no need to be hawkish for that : by advocating free college tuition across the country, Bernie Sanders also pointed this out as one of the major causes.
And if you mean ‘increased unemployment’, it makes perfect sense, and it isn’t necessarily contradicting Raskin’s theory. FYI : employment rate and unemployment rate aren’t calculated the same way. Employment = proportion of employed people with respect to the working age population (including students, for example). Unemployment = proportion of unemployed people with respect to the active population.
> “If the Fed’s full transcripts can be released sooner, they should be”
Yeah, that way, we’ll have confirmation the economy isn’t what they’re really interested in. If they were, they’d be handing out helicopter money, which would immediately boost businesses, instead of quantitatively easing Dimon’s salary and stock buybacks…
Bunch of corporate welfare queens
Exactly.
The problem is the stupidity at the top….lazy fat slobs who are overpaid doing nothing but bitching….Put the people on the same economic footing and get a more truthful picture ..TRUTH…. BUT WASHINGTON looks at the people without as the problem… not the people with money I have a job for you and you will take what I give you and be happy…. BULLSHIT
Insuring that there is no equal footing – which is the inequality of the work place – and the gated communities like NYC
The whole neoliberal approach to central banking. It is intentional and they smoke screen with any rubbish to maintain their strategy! The idea of neoliberal economists and policymakers being that you don’t want the government getting too involved in macroeconomic policy. You don’t want them promoting too much employment because that might lead to a raise in wages and, in turn, to a reduction in the profit share of the national income. The macroeconomic neoliberal straitjacket -limit what government can do—no fiscal deficits or low fiscal deficits—you limit what the central bank can do—only target low inflation—and you’ve pretty much made it impossible for the government to engage in macroeconomic policy that’s going to have a broad-based supportive effect on the economy.
quote”Federal Reserve Bankers Mocked Unemployed Americans Behind Closed Doors”unquote
Yeah, we’ll see who get’s the last laugh when these maggots are tied to a guillotine or burned alive while hanging upside down from a lamp post, or skinned alive in the street. It’s not a matter of IF… only when. And they know it…
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
Amen, brother – you are absolutely right. The last laugh is indeed coming and these idiots are in for a very real – if only very brief – shock.
One of the biggest impediments to jobs are arrest records. Most adult males have been arrested for something, usually nonsense like disturbing the peace. This keeps them out of the work force and the educational system. It is deliberate. The darker their skin the more of it you see. Now they also use credit scores and other impediments because they really want illegal or H1Bs, who don’t have to go thru the real employment process. The easiest way to get a low wage job is to pretend you are an illegal.
Fascinating little slice of life at the levers of power, innit?
In these dismissive and cavalier responses of the Elites, one hears the prescient and hollow guffaws of feudal nobility and royalty before just before they were engulfed and swept aside by tides of former revolutions.
The fed was created as an institution of last resort to save the banks. Only when poverty and unemployment reach revolutionary levels will the fed start worrying about the deplorable people.
The 2% monthly minimum credit card payments one begins making when they first get a credit card is the equivalent to credit card crack. Within five years or when the credit card debtor has reached the point of treading water on their credit card debt, meaning they can afford the minimum payment but not much more, aka hooked on debt they can never pay down….from then on the credit card crack addict only gets HALF of the buying power whenever they purchase with their credit card because the other half goes towards interest rate charges that never end.
So those who have sustainable but unending credit card debt are basically paying 200% of the cost of an item whenever they make a credit card purchase. Federal Reserve Bankers are laughing at the very people they first hooked on credit card crack as they then continue to charge them double for all future purchases.
Please consider signing my Debt Neutrality Petition. http://www.debtneutralitypetition.com
Although the effects of capitalism on folks can be measured to some extent, as a way to do “the economy” it is not much more valid than reading chicken entrails.
The invisible hand of Adam Smith is the emotional equivalent of the Holy Ghost (don’t worry, things will get better eventually), and determining economic policies based on such pablum is the problem, not the solution.
Until we base how we govern ourselves and interact with our neighbors on universal principles such as universal health care and universal human rights and have laws that reflect back to those guiding principles (and rejecting laws and economic policies that don’t support them) we’re simply treading water; and in most cases (climate change being the single largest example) we’re actually contributing quickly to our own demise.
Humans are inventive enough to both create and distribute the basic necessities of life to every human on the planet; what’s lacking is the political will to do so.
The competitive nature of man plays havoc with your neatly distributed world. Remove the need for competition and it’s a workable framework.
Can you provide some links to proven method(s) that have lessened competition in capitalism? Links to any programs that haven’t been tried yet that you think may work would be welcome as well.
@Sillyputty –
Great comment. We have to get to those basics. Especially the Universal Human Rights thing. There was some article somewhere, that unfortunately I didn’t actually read, but the headline was something like ” are we becoming a nation devoid of empathy.” Sad to see that these folks who mock and cast aside fellow humans seem to lack that trait entirely.
We need to see that fellow human beings have worth as fellow beings, not just as workers to be exploited or consumers to be sold to. Work and consumption will always be around, I guess, but should be subservient to ethics and human interests.
And of course, I must comment in regard to education. As an educator (retired) of course I feel that all should be educated as far as they can make it! And remember my Mother’s dream; students shouldn’t have to incur massive debt in doing so. But we must also realize that education is NOT a one-size-fits-all proposition. We need colleges and universities for sure, but also community colleges and good vocational schools and training.
Final thought: we need to get these economic yahoos – and company yahoos to think a bit differently. If more folks had work, they’d be better positioned to add to the economy; consuming, paying taxes, saving, investing, etc.. Makes sense to me.
“…but [we] should be subservient to ethics and human interests.”
Well said. That really is the key. You, I, and others here are constantly pushing back against polices (neoliberal economics, etc) and ideologies (libertarianism, etc) that put individuals and powerful groups ahead of egalitarian principles that protect us all.
Neither income nor human rights have ever trickled-up under the policies we have.
Overarching laws and policies focusing on universal rights are meant to protect individuals against the powerful interests that only desire more for themselves at our expense (monetary and emotional), but these protection have been watered -down and whittled-away through legislative actions, and we need to change that.
No idea how an html tag got in at the end. Oh well…
@Sillyputty –
Thanks and right back at you :-)
And don’t worry about that HTML tag… not a problem.. it even accentuates that last paragraph, so its quite ok!
To be fair, you do have to admit that there are many people who do not have the work ethic or literacy/skills to do the work they seek. I used to teach science for 10 years and was appalled at the number of students that didn’t care about anything….now it is time for them to make it in the real world and it is not pretty. We need to find a way to distinguish between those that are caught between a rock and a hard place because of circumstances between their control and the apathetic riff-raff that just wants a free ride.
Work ethic is fine, but if you’re going to be working for vultures like this, either directly or for their subcontractors, what’s the point? The kids may sense something.
That’s a fair enough point to make.
I rather suspect that you were unable to understand what they did care about and why they didn’t seem to care about what you thought was important.
I’ll bet you were a great teacher. Not.
As usual..resulting to insults. Many of these kids didn’t do anything because they knew they didn’t have to. Believe it or not, not every bad outcome is a result of society. And btw…MANY parents requested to have their children in my class and I get facebook requests on a monthly basis from my ex students from more than 12-15 years ago. ..thnx so much for your attitude..it helped Trump to get elected. May you enjoy him for the next eight years. Intolerant people like you who refuse to think or consider another point of view helped to elect him. And you are supposed to be the tolerant one. Adios keyboard social justice warrior.
When they are richly deserved, you betcha.
And if you don’t understand the vile and outrageous insult at the core of your post, and your judgment of those kids. . . well, that’s why you deserve to be insulted.
You are a true champion of the downtrodden and oppressed. Keep honing those keyboard warrior skills that do NOTHING to actually help someone. I’m glad that I am able to be a target of your visciousness and repressed resentments that have probably been festering for a very long time that are cloaked in a fake façade of tolerance. Again…please enjoy the next eight years.
Trust me, I never repress my resentments. I don’t get ulcers, I cause them.
You have no idea what I do or have done to help people over many decades and your assumptions are both wrong and irrelevant.
It will be hard for me to enjoy the Trump administration, for however long it may last (eight years is a Trumpkin pipe dream), so I’ll make sure I don’t miss too many opportunities to nail assholes like you and your vile anti-social philosophy. Fortunate for you that you enjoy being a target.
Pretty viscious…amazing how brave keyboard SJW’s can be! Again…enjoy the next eight years!
I write under my own name and I’m easy to find. Who the fuck are you, you anonymous right-wing coward?
Have you ever worked in the public schools? Ever tried tutoring somebody? There’s a range of motivation, just as much as there’s a range of talent. Malinois innocuous remark — apparently informed by experience — in no way deserves your rude and likely uninformed tone.
And if *you* happen to know the magic secret that unlocks everybody’s inner Einstein, why the hell are you wasting your time on cascades of insulting comments?
There was nothing innocuous about Malinois’ initial remark. That you think it was, suggests either deep ignorance of class and social issues in America or deliberate adoption of a position that I find reprehensible.
And who do you think you are to pose questions that suggest I might need some particular experience to understand something or have an opinion on it? And why would you be guessing, as you clearly are, that I don’t have the experience you believe is important?
This suggests either poor comprehension of the above exchange or really poor straw man construction.
“And why would you be guessing, as you clearly are, that I don’t have the experience you believe is important?”
I **asked** you if you have that experience. From your dodges, er, “answers”, it seems that you don’t. I mean, if you were arguing from knowledge you might have prefaced your (entirely rude) comments with something like, “I’ve taught also, and I think…” Mostly you seem like an armchair gasbag who wants to bash people for — hell, improper semantics, thoughtcrime, I don’t know.
Anyway, do you honestly think that you’re the only person on earth — let alone the only “Intercept” reader — who’s ever noticed that American society falls a wee bit short of adequate? Skip it, it’s a rhetorical question. It’s a good bet that you probably **do** believe you’re the only enlightened being on the planet.
Babbler.
Poor incentive programs in the system are not the kids fault though, right? Why would you expect them to rise above their circumstances for a mythical ideal that isn’t real for them? Working hard for the sake of hard work is just dumb if it won’t get you food or a comfortable way of life. It’s tough not to give up with the system stacked against you.
A lot of kids behavior is on the parents too. They’re kids themselves, so how can you expect much from theirs? It’s kids raising kids. They don’t want to parent so they throw their kids to an education system that is glorified baby-sitting and then blame the system for their kid’s failure.
Kids are often abandoned by their parents and the system. Some are smart and strong enough to make it, but that is not the majority.
It takes a village, so the saying goes.
I agree with you 100%…it is much more difficult for kids nowadays in schools as there are so many negatives in our culture. But there are MANY kids that make it out of crappy situations. Each of those kids is an argument for the idea that a kid in crappy circumstances cant make it.
“They don’t want to parent so they throw their kids to an education system that is glorified baby-sitting and then blame the system for their kid’s failure.”
So people who send their children to school do so because they don’t want to parent? Explain yourself!
I’d love to take my 1st and 3rd grader out of the system that doesn’t even teach them the months of the year. Hire a governess and travel the world. Learn by experience and immersion.
Instead i’m just treading water with the rest of the middle class wage slaves.
A great teacher could have picked up a few more students. A lot do not care. WhY is the big question?
The answer is obvious: They don’t know any reason why they should care. And for many of them there is no reason they should care.
Only people who believe in the American Dream; who believe that we live in a meritocracy; who believe that everyone is born with the ability to grasp any and all subject matter if they just try hard enough; who don’t understand how little socioeconomic mobility there actually is in Our Great Nation don’t know this.
You’re underestimating kids and probably not listening to them because you already decided how kids should be. Your bias blocked your ability to observe. Kids are incredibly observant and absorb their environment, consciously and subconsciously. They probably see the game is rigged against them, so why try so hard? Especially when the system is made to keep stupid and sociopathic kids around to become little consumers too. It sounds like you were a decent trainer, but a poor educator.
Trust me, there are plenty of bright kids who see things for what they are, whether you like it or not.
“You’re underestimating kids and probably not listening to them because you already decided how kids should be. Your bias blocked your ability to observe.”
And you know this based on a couple of posts in a comment thread!?!?! Wow.
We’re talking in generalized terms. Or at least I thought we were.
“We’re talking in generalized terms. Or at least I thought we were.”
Then you shouldn’t use the 2nd person pronoun. In this case, when I say “you” I mean you.
Its mind boggling sglover..I should have known better than to think I could have a rational conversation here.. This is really just an echo chamber..the same people over and over again trying to impress eachother. Will probably be my last post with the intercept.
Thankfully at least one person is being real. Talk to anyone that hires millennials and you will hear something similar. The ones who get it can be the best employees that anyone could ever want, with skills that blow away the rest of us. But unfortunately many (most) seem to think they should get everything for nothing – with no skills to boot. So your comment strikes home – how to help the ones really trying over those wanting the free ride.
That said, the design of the system itself often drives behavior. We have employers that treat workers as disposable, we have schools that require only that students jump through a few hoops (rather than building a desire to continue to learn), we have governments that do not treat citizens equally or fairly (the rich win almost always).
We need a system where wealth is recycled back to those that do not have it, or in the end there will be a revolution. If you play Monopoly with others and one person gets most of the assets, the others soon will not want to play anymore. But give them enough when they past GO each time and they may continue to play.
That I agree with 100%..I certainly am not justifying this unfair system by any means and personally have been burned by it very badly a few times in my life. Thnx for the nice thoughtful and rational response
I’m not terribly surprised your students weren’t interested in science. Under the Trump administration, thousands of scientists will be fired, making this a very unappealing career choice.
The outlook for grave diggers is much brighter. First there is an aging population. Second, restrictions on companies emitting toxins into the environment will be dismantled. Third, the scale of wars being fought (if not the absolute number) is likely to increase. This leads me to think there will be piles of bodies to be buried. The opportunity is there for those who are willing to seize it!
Just to remind you that Soviet central bank had policy of ZIRP permanently and almost all the industry have been declared as TBTF for the same reason as in the US namely connection to the military/establishment one way or another directly or indirectly.
So what do they at FED think about ordinary Americans?
They are laughing all the way to the FED for freshly printed money. The establishment filth, lowlifes in government , Wall Street and corporate killers are shocked, openly surprised that they have not been so far nailed on some of those pitchforks with their names of them and instead Americans prove themselves total morons by picking up again and again rigged, meaningless, pieces of paper or digital ballots having on them written all over “We oligarchs who run this horrific outfit cannot believe you are such a moron to buy this phony democratic sh..t”.But still like zombies they aligned themselves calmly orderly to have that faces spat at by oligarchic filth again and again.
God damn, this is America, you have a choice. Nail those bastards or bend over for another anal democratic session.
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/faux-elections-and-american-insanity-of-fear/
Given the number of times that drug testing comes up in this article, I’d say that drug testing is a big part of the problem. What is ever going on that even MacDonalds would seek to stick its nose into the private world of its employees. In Canada, our courts have protected us from this malarkey. ….and the fact that the working class may have had a toke after work hasn’t brought down our economy.
But we’re not entirely unfamiliar with the issue. In the 90’s, American drug warriors were intent on forcing random drug testing on Canada using threats to trade. Our courts did not take the threat to civil liberties lightly. First, they refused to go along with the core notion of American drug testing, that being that any amount of a prohibited drug is deemed impairment and reason to remove a worker from the workplace, ….deem them an addict…..and put them on a List. Our courts said that random testing could not occur unless there were rational impairment levels set in accordance with the performance of the job. This defeated the purpose of the whole thing from the U.S. point of view, for it was nothing more than end run around civil rights law , enabling them to identify, list, and apply extra-judicial penalties, such as loss of employment, against those so identified and Listed.
However some Canadian employers sought to drug test job applicants. Our courts – – and this is laughable – – ruled that drug use was a handicap and secondly, that an employer had to offer a job to the applicant before any drug test took place. Those testing positive were/are then protected from any act that would be discriminatory against a new handicapped employee. Needless to say this has dampened our employers’ enthusiasm.
Nice work Canada, stick to your guns. I’d like to see some mandatory drug testing for bankers, you could tie it to the government handouts they’ve received. I’d target the investment wanker type with coke, and anyone 40+ with prescription drug abuse.
i have a bumper sticker you might like, it is “end the fed, arrest the banksters”. the wall street bunch started sending the jobs out of the usa in the 70’s, all they ever cared about was themselves.
These Fed Reserve clowns may have taken some cheap shots at the flunkies and junkies some of their friends have to sort through to fill their low wage jobs but they keep interest rates low. It took Obama and enough democrats to push through the cuts in unemployment insurance.
What is happening now is that they are jacking up interest rates to sabotage Trump’s planned jobs programs which would be aimed at high skill high wage mostly union jobs. This is a political ploy which Trump has called them on and I wonder what he can do to stop their future plans.
As with almost everything else you write here, the idea that Trump will do anything that helps unions is a canard.
As for Trump helping unions? His “planned jobs programs” aren’t designed, nor under the current “capitalism takes all” paradigm, will they ever be able to help the lower and middle class in any substantive way whatsoever.
Simply look at his cabinet; those who benefit will remain the same: the big bank/big money interests in his administration and his advisors and those they hang out with.
I suppose you haven’t noticed that Trump has already intervened to save a few thousand high skill high wage union jobs at Carrier, Ford, Chrysler and GM. Not a huge number but a respectable start for someone who wasn’t yet president .
The trillion dollar infrastructure projects will produce hundreds of thousands of skilled high paying union and nonunion jobs for the working class possibly even some for those people stuck in low pay dead end occupations.
Trump’s team may be packed with capitalist pigs but they have a CEO directing them to put working class people back to work so there can be a middle class and some opportunity for those in the lower class.
The cheering you’re not hearing are the small business owners in those pre-fab warehouse near the railroad in your town finally getting a sense of relief from having to fill out endless on-line regulatory forms .
What I suppose is that neither you nor anyone else has proved this to be the case. He’s not a deity whose very breathe can make the world a better place. He’s a politician, of sorts; and without a policy in place (not being a President, and all) he can’t save anything yet, much less be subject to scrutiny by, you know, evidence, to see if that’s in fact what has happened.
Please cite these specific projects, with corresponding data (projections by the CBO, etc) that back up your claims. I haven’t seen it, nor have you, so stop lying.
Cite any study in the last 30 years where capitalist pigs have put working class people back to work. YOU CANNOT.
It’s been the other way around, and I can cite proof of this.
While I hope all your dreams come true here – that’s all they are – dreams based on what you want to happen, despite all of the evidence throughout our lifetimes of it ever having been the case.
lots of insights in your post.
I’m sure you could find data on jobs produced by infrastructure rebuilding from Obama’s much smaller stimulus and there is probably a simplified equation that that would produce accurate results. I was just making a wild guess I could be wrong and the number could be a million jobs. When the spending bills have been signed and ground broken we will have a better idea of the scope of the projects but the targets have already been selected. This project has momentum with no real detractors except possibly the Fed who seem to want to undermine its positive results.
I know who will be hired for this work having done it myself in the IUOE and I looked up what they earn now, about four times minimum wage.
The fact that our lovely pigs haven’t done anything but offshore and downsize for the last thirty years makes these early reversals by some of our larger industrial firms newsworthy, something has changed. Trump hasn’t slacked off on this issue now calling out BMW and Toyota to keep or bring jobs to the US if they are going to sell the vehicles here.
I’m glad to hear you hope this jobs program becomes a reality, so do I but I won’t celebrate until I see results and Trump may be the only leader we’ve seen in our lifetime who can make it happen.
The bottom line here is that you keep making fact claims (“Trump has already intervened to save a few thousand high skill high wage union jobs…”) that I’ve asked you to back up with evidence to support them and you don’t.
Of course, if you were arguing in good faith, you’d either acknowledge the fact that you can’t find evidence for any of it or you’d provide that evidence and we could argue the merits of it.
In other words, you are blowing smoke just as Trump is. Now his bloviating may have some affect that we can measure in the futut\re, but we’ll have to wait for evidence.
It’s exactly the same thing we’ll have to do with your “arguments.” Wait and see. Hardly a plan, is it?
What in the world are you talking about? The media has grudgingly but accurately reported on all of these saved or new jobs that Trump was involved in keeping in the country. If you were in hiding the last couple of months you might have missed these reports, I don’t use links but you’re free to search.
FYI I did a rough calculation on jobs produced by infrastructure repair work and conservatively guessed that one million dollars invested would create one job, do the math for one trillion dollars spent.
You keep making these fact claims…that I’ve asked you to back up with evidence to support them and you don’t.
If you were arguing in good faith, you’d either acknowledge the fact that you can’t find evidence for any of it or you’d provide that evidence and we could argue the merits of it.
You are making these claims, not me. You are responsible for backing up what you say. Not me.
To help you learn to research and link to your claims, here is some help. If you need additional help in using links to back up your claims, please ask. I’m sure someone will help you.
I’ll have to leave you to your pedantic playground and Play Doh mentality. Life is too short to waste on this BS claim of me or anyone else owing you anything.
BTW I wrote I don’t use links not that I don’t know how to use them.
Yes, it’s been apparent for some time that you want to make claims but you don’t want to back them up.
Your claim of pedantry is wrong. Wanting to make an informed decision requires spending the time to get accurate information (something I’ve done and you have not) and testing that information among your peers (again, something I have done and you have not).
I’d be happy to discuss the evidence for your claims and refute or change my mind as the case may be.
What I won’t do is just run around and say “this is so!” in the hopes of finding others that unquestioningly agree with me.
Confirmation bias, group think, and the like is lazy, and it’s dangerous – a recent example of doing what you do is the Iraq War – and we are all now seeing how well that worked out.
I have had discussions with the managers of three of the largest employers in our area about employment. One of them told me he had to interview about a hundred people to get 3 employees and then he usually lost one or two of those within a few weeks. That loss was due to a followup drug test or the person quitting because they actually had to come to work on time every day.
It always astounds me that the same people who complain about low-wage worker’s work-ethics are the same people advocating for the abolishment of the minimum wage. Yes, they advocate for the end of all unemployment benefits too, but don’t they understand that by actively working to keep workers working worse and worse jobs, they’re discouraging people from seeking gainful employment and encouraging them to live off the state?
Good article. Adds a lot of fuel to the fire of getting rid of the Fed. We mocked the communists for their central committees and 5 year plans and yet we empower these Ivory Tower elites to basically run the same scam on us? If it’s not clear now that the Fed is clueless (never see their own bubbles until they pop) when will it be.
if we want to have a capitalist economy, let the market decide the cost of money (interest rates) and it’s value (foreign exchange rates).
I think they see the bubbles–they just don’t care. They have access to the same data (probably much more in fact) as the free market economists who are able to see the bubbles. But the cycle of booms and busts greatly enriches them and their friends so they are happy to perpetuate it.
spot on
i once conversed with a pro in this particular area
The pros are prepared to sell in bubbles and buy in crashes.
part of that prep as i see it is creating the bubbles and crashes which i believe they have the power to do – being as they are a club and all know each other. I could use the C word but the other C word plays better, COLLUSION.
This time around i can only speculate how big the bubble will get. I am guessing it is all a matter of whether Trump takes and follows their orders.
the market?
corruption is too far advanced to ever have that happen unless we fire the fed, own our own banks, and change the currency to dismiss the thieves who have robbed and looted the economy thus far.
“It’s hard to pin this down quantitatively,” he continued, wondering if there was “something meaningful there as a contributor to impediments to labor market functioning.”
It is meaningful that the labor market is composed of thinking, feeling human beings rather than cattle. The Silverspooners will never learn that fact until the rabble breaks down their mansion doors and repossess their yachts.
“The Silverspooners will never learn that fact until the rabble breaks down their mansion doors and repossess their yachts.”
Yeah, well they can contemplate it while their head gazes from the bottom of the basket for the last 30 seconds of their scumsucking life on this planet. Meanwhile, those “Silverspooners” are getting nervous as they know it’s not a matter of IF.. , it’s a matter of WHEN the disposed of this nation rise up, arm themselves, and start to drag every last one of the .01% out of their granite palaces and burn them alive in the streets. Even Piketty warned them. They’re just now getting the clue…
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
However, some will still refuse to believe it. They will be the first to feel the lunette.
Self-serving motherfuckers. Loathsome.
It’s good to see that the aristocrats think as much of the peasantry as they always have. Perhaps it’s time to stop this march back toward dark age market feudalism.
Another Revolution?
Duh.
“Another Revolution?”
Um, yeah.
When I worked in corporate environments, in every case, the most senior and most highly-paid managers and officers missed the most work. Of course they were also the least missed when they weren’t present.
They also use more drugs then the rank-and-file.
Would like to see some actual numbers on job application rejections due to drug use
I don’t care about any drug or alcohol use that doesn’t interfere with doing the job and I don’t see why it’s any business of an employer.
But you’re probably right. I was one of those senior guys (the one who worked all the time, of course ;^) and drugs and booze were everywhere. And when drinking begins at lunchtime, it definitely impairs one’s ability to do the job.
So, the callousness aside, it bodes ill for their method. These great economists and financiers are governing on the basis of anecdotes, it seems.
*waves at dear coram nobis*
Hiya!
If you think banks are robbing us, you’re free to participate in their stupendous profits by buying their stock.
Great piece. Have been reading up on Wright Patman (who was mentioned in another Stoller piece). Patman’s primer on money is a must-read for those who want to learn more about the Fed. (and, indeed, its biggest critic):
https://archive.org/details/PatmanPrimerOnMoney
The Federal Reserve mandate is to maintain “stable” prices, yet the Fed chairperson goes before Congress and states that their inflation target is 2%. In what kind of an insane world is a 2% increase considered “stable”? Do working people get a 2% raise every year? It sounds small, but that’s still a 22% increase over 10 years. How many people today are making 22% more than they were in 2006? That’s how the Fed works. Prices go up so our wages and salaries buy fewer goods every year. Thus we’re working the same hours for less compensation. That difference goes into the pockets of the very rich.
People constantly complain about wealth inequality and yell “Tax the rich!” without really considering how monetary policy works to further that inequality. All those people clamoring for an increase in the minimum wage claim that it’s needed to keep up with “cost of living” increases; But they never stop to ask “Gee? Why is the cost of living always increasing?” The Fed creates money out of thin air and uses that money to buy U.S. government treasury bonds/notes which pay interest. The American people are thus paying taxes to make interest payments on money that the Fed created with a few keystrokes on a computer.
Is it any wonder that they laugh at us?
Great explanation. Took me a while to understand how deeply fraudulent and our monetary system is. Nevermind the fact that CEO’s of the commercial banks(i.e JP Morgan Chase) banks that got bailed out sat on national federal reserve boards.
Once I learned how the Federal Reserve works, I woke up from the myth of freedom in modern society.
Seriously, a private bank creating money out of thin air, loaning it to a govt at interest, and then expecting it to get paid back? If we paid back all our debts today all money in the world would disappear and we would still owe. Deficit is a myth used to scare poor people. Money is “legal tender”, so it’s just paper that represents belief in its value. Our money is backed by faith, not anything tangible. That’s why our economy will be at the whim of the Orange Man’s tweets because all finance is a speculative fantasy based on people’s beliefs and faith, kinda like a weird religion.
The system has been rigged from the start. It’s the height of greed and stupidity.
Hear, hear! The way in which these things are made “desirable” is truly a matter of black magic. I mean for example, “Bitcoins” are just a scheme some anonymous guy thought up, yet they become viewed as valuable. A kid in marketing once set up a “Million Dollar Homepage” (back when they were called that) and actually managed to sell off pixels in a to-be-constructed figure for a million dollars! And then there is modern art… which is, if anything, even more absurd than that. And the fancy, ultra high priced clothes in the fashion industry that not even the most beautiful models in the world can make look good, but they still sell for more than ordinary offerings. And so forth. It’s a black magic, distorting the minds of men, and who understands it, might become wealthy … or liberate the world forever.
Yes, value is largely an illusion. A Picasso may be just a few dollars worth of canvas and paint yet, we mutually agree that there is a far greater worth. We have to have common faith to sustain the illusion. Our currency is just printed paper, another illusion. This is probably why it states “In God We Trust”. Without faith it is worth nothing.
The 2% number results in large part from their unstated admission that they cannot control the economy precisely. What they and all other central bankers fear the most is deflation. Rather than aiming at absolute stability (0% inflation) they choose to err in the direction of inflation.
Might I add that their take on interest rates also deserves skepticism. It is not considered inflationary to charge 18 – 24% per annum on consumer debt, but the rates paid on interbank loans and government bonds must be strictly controlled lest they be inflationary. As a result, those of us with short financial horizons (i.e., old codgers) cannot even match inflation with the returns on safe investments like government bonds.
The Fed’s real mandate is to inflate asset prices by printing as much money as it can before WAGES start ticking upward. It doesn’t care if consumer prices move upward.
If the NYPD ever raided the penthouses of the Wall St. greedmonsters it would find enough coke to turn the North Pole white once again.
I’ve joked that if we want to stop the War on Drugs, they should put drug sniffing dogs outside the doors to Wall St. Legislation would pass tomorrow to stop it.
They mock the poor for not being good little slaves, they complain about work ethic when they have no ethics, and they live in a bubble of self-delusion. Sounds like good ol’ American values to me.
The real comedy is they are desperately grasping for control of a system they see slipping out of their fingers. Their demographic will be a minority in the next 10-20 years, and after all of the crap they’re pulling they’re gonna be the small group surrounded by a world of enemies. They better hope they get everything locked down, or things are going to get really ugly for them.
“Their demographic will be a minority in the next 10-20 years”
What demographic would that be?
Aging Christian white males. Those people who think the US is “their” country.
The sexist, racist, ageist, anti-religious bigotry of your comment aside, that group is already a tiny minority. Men alone are a minority, without mentioning all the other subgroups you named on top of that.
Ah, trying to stamp out the conversation with shame and guilt because it ruffles the feathers of people who take labels too seriously. Particlarly those who identify as such. How progressive.
I hope you do understand stifling the conversation leads no where. Especially when the system is clearly divided along those lines. It’s a big reason people are so pissed off today about politics. Nobody can talk without somebody trolling the other over labels.
The rich elites in power in the US are predominantly old Christian white men. It’s an appropriate label because it’s true.
Tell it like it is. But I would leave “Christian” out of the description. Not only are many of them Jewish, but none of them is a Christian in the true sense of the word.
Let’s just say they’re fundamentalist religious types then. It doesn’t really matter which religion people use to justify their greed and conquest. They’re all pretty much the same in their goals of dominance.
I won’t go into a religious debate here. Far too touchy for a comments section.
“Let’s just say they’re fundamentalist religious types then. It doesn’t really matter which religion people use to justify their greed and conquest.”
Great point. Aging, white, fundamentalist men.
Private bankers should not be on the Federal Reserve Board. This is a government institution and instead the people making money by ‘financial easing’ are the ones deciding on ‘financial easing.’ It is a standing joke/conflict of interest/regulatory capture story.
“This is a government institution”
No, it is not. The Federal Reserve is a private institution with private shareholders. The government gets to nominate a few people who run it, but it’s no more “federal” than “Federal Express”.
Look up the term “Quantitative Easing”. From Wikipedia:
“Quantitative easing (QE) is a monetary policy in which a central bank creates new electronic money in order to buy government bonds…”
If The Fed is part of the government, how/why is it buying government bonds?
If it’s a government institution, which department is it under?
The Fed is a private business and they have the keys to the kingdom. Nothing governmental about it other than some appointments. It actually has owners. These include but are not limited to Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guaranty Trust, Chemical Bank. Any chartered bank that puts 3% of their assets into the Fed system is a shareholder. The system itself is the problem.
I laugh at you too. And I’m no banker.
As shown here, the Federal Reserve is quite clearly breaking its own mandate:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/06/economic-sector-bias-at-federal-reserve.html
It certainly doesn’t take a genius to figure out which sectors of the economy will likely be favoured by Federal Reserve policies should there be another “financial crisis”.
They sound like 18th Century French aristocrats.
Likewise their heads should be on pikes like 18th Century French aristocrats. Every last one of them.
I’m not sure why. Is there any empirical evidence that the unemployed tend to vote Republican?
Haha
What the bankers & societies elite should do is announce triple figure wage increase for themselves, on top of ten’s of millions of dollars of 2017xmas bonuses. You know, tell the public they don’t care that we’re only one month into this year. And frankly lord it up how they are doing really well & care not for society as a whole.
Normal good citizens are been robbed wholesale behind closed doors & they know it. With CEO’s earning 150% or more of a good chunk of large corporations workers, this cannot continue!
“Look around this room. We’ve all got well-paying jobs. Our friends have all got well-paying jobs. So what’s the problem?”
“Look around this room. We’ve all got well-paying jobs. Our friends have all got well-paying jobs. So what’s the problem?”
This isn’t limited to the artistocracts or the bankers, either. I nearly bit my tongue in half the other night, while attending a local board of education meeting in my upper-middle-class town [I live in the ghetto of the town :)]. The parents were talking about how, now that the economy is “better,” we should reconsider the million-dollar, artificial turf, fully-lighted football field that failed to go through a few years ago. THEY are doing OK. Sports are important to them. Why would anyone feel any other way? It’s an inability to look outside of one’s own front door. I don’t know what’s caused it, but it’s rampant and it’s dangerous–this inability to empathize and/or care for your fellow human being.
‘work ethic’ = slave mentality
Nice