The 2008 Bailout: The Pandora's Box of All Pandora's Boxes
If there ever was a Pandora's Box, the Big Bailout of 2008 has to be it.
[Thanks to 2highfestival.com for the image.]
How did we get here?
After a difficult time in the early 1900s, we began our drift away from sound monetary and banking policy by turning towards government for the prevention of business cycles.
We thought we were doing the right thing in creating the Federal Reserve. Since then, it has evolved into the monster it is today.
It started as a tool for maintenance of the stability of the banking system, but it has become the all-knowing, all seeing Poobah-Controller of the Issuance of Purchasing Media, in the place of what we had back then, the gold standard. In fact, we've gotten so far away from this standard that we officially abandoned it in 1971.
Today, it is increasing clear that the Fed has no real control of the money-creation process. Meantime, Congress has decided to come to the rescue of one failing institution after another, most recently General Motors. Ford and Chrysler will not be far behind.
Where will it end? How will this turn out?
No one knows; and the more the government messes around with this, the murkier the future becomes.
We are already in a good recession (see the statistics of the American Institute for Economic Research), and it may start out to be deflationary. But our leaders will not let price deflation happen. They will pump as much credit into the system as they think they need to keep prices and the economy stable. After all, that is their mandate. (See what I have to say about their mandate here.)
Yet deflation enriches us through lower prices. (It also means reducing the supply of purchasing media, but that's a separate story. See my discussion of this definition confusion.) If prices were to decrease, we would all be better off. For example, do you prefer the price of tuna fish at $3.99 a can, or $2.99? Duh.
Deflation (i.e. lower CPI) is not bad in and of itself. What is bad is what usually accompanies deflation. In most deflationary episodes we have recession and/or depression: Bankruptcies, decreased consumption, loss of jobs, stock market losses, bank closures.
But the Fed is forgetting that by "curing" the symptom of recession (i.e. by stopping price deflation) they are not necessarily curing the cause of that recession.
To cure this recession, Congress must allow the market to rid itself of a century of inflation. That can only be corrected through a deflationary process, even if it means we must undergo some recession. If the Fed and the Treasury try to keep it from happening, they will maintain the distortion of inflation instead of allowing it to cure itself.
What method will they use to accomplish this? They will try their darnedest to prevent deflation/recession/depression by turning on the printing presses (issuing fiat currency and credit) to whomever needs it the most, or cries the loudest, or threatens to close. They have borrowed billions, and created billions, in this effort. Where will it stop, now that the presses are running full speed?
Businesses are quickly learning that they must start screaming for cash. The cash is available. First come, first served. Yet by continuing the inflationary process and handing out cash, our own elected officials are fleecing us on a daily basis.
They will fund these bailouts with the raises we will not get, with the value we are losing on our houses, with the pension investments we bought at inflated prices and that have vanished.
Our salaries are now in negative growth, banks steal our savings every day through poor interest remuneration (they get cheaper money from the Fed), and our social security incomes and pension allotments are not keeping pace with the CPI. As my Dad used to say, "Stand still, little lambs, to be shorn." (For more about him, see my last post.)
In the longer run (when, I don't know), we the people must reject these shenanigans and turn to gold as a refuge against government destruction of the monetary units of the world.
That's the day Pandora will close her box. I hope I live long enough to see it happen.
[Thanks to 2highfestival.com for the image.]
How did we get here?
After a difficult time in the early 1900s, we began our drift away from sound monetary and banking policy by turning towards government for the prevention of business cycles.
We thought we were doing the right thing in creating the Federal Reserve. Since then, it has evolved into the monster it is today.
It started as a tool for maintenance of the stability of the banking system, but it has become the all-knowing, all seeing Poobah-Controller of the Issuance of Purchasing Media, in the place of what we had back then, the gold standard. In fact, we've gotten so far away from this standard that we officially abandoned it in 1971.
Today, it is increasing clear that the Fed has no real control of the money-creation process. Meantime, Congress has decided to come to the rescue of one failing institution after another, most recently General Motors. Ford and Chrysler will not be far behind.
Where will it end? How will this turn out?
No one knows; and the more the government messes around with this, the murkier the future becomes.
We are already in a good recession (see the statistics of the American Institute for Economic Research), and it may start out to be deflationary. But our leaders will not let price deflation happen. They will pump as much credit into the system as they think they need to keep prices and the economy stable. After all, that is their mandate. (See what I have to say about their mandate here.)
Yet deflation enriches us through lower prices. (It also means reducing the supply of purchasing media, but that's a separate story. See my discussion of this definition confusion.) If prices were to decrease, we would all be better off. For example, do you prefer the price of tuna fish at $3.99 a can, or $2.99? Duh.
Deflation (i.e. lower CPI) is not bad in and of itself. What is bad is what usually accompanies deflation. In most deflationary episodes we have recession and/or depression: Bankruptcies, decreased consumption, loss of jobs, stock market losses, bank closures.
But the Fed is forgetting that by "curing" the symptom of recession (i.e. by stopping price deflation) they are not necessarily curing the cause of that recession.
To cure this recession, Congress must allow the market to rid itself of a century of inflation. That can only be corrected through a deflationary process, even if it means we must undergo some recession. If the Fed and the Treasury try to keep it from happening, they will maintain the distortion of inflation instead of allowing it to cure itself.
What method will they use to accomplish this? They will try their darnedest to prevent deflation/recession/depression by turning on the printing presses (issuing fiat currency and credit) to whomever needs it the most, or cries the loudest, or threatens to close. They have borrowed billions, and created billions, in this effort. Where will it stop, now that the presses are running full speed?
Businesses are quickly learning that they must start screaming for cash. The cash is available. First come, first served. Yet by continuing the inflationary process and handing out cash, our own elected officials are fleecing us on a daily basis.
They will fund these bailouts with the raises we will not get, with the value we are losing on our houses, with the pension investments we bought at inflated prices and that have vanished.
Our salaries are now in negative growth, banks steal our savings every day through poor interest remuneration (they get cheaper money from the Fed), and our social security incomes and pension allotments are not keeping pace with the CPI. As my Dad used to say, "Stand still, little lambs, to be shorn." (For more about him, see my last post.)
In the longer run (when, I don't know), we the people must reject these shenanigans and turn to gold as a refuge against government destruction of the monetary units of the world.
That's the day Pandora will close her box. I hope I live long enough to see it happen.
Labels: deflation, economics, government bailout, government intervention, inflation, money supply
posted by Katy Delay at 5:16 PM
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