Our new dystopian Republican congress has a lot of people thinking about what might happen under their control. For me, a smart Democratic plan would be to take every GOP bill and highlight what it would do. A two column analysis, one side Democratic and the other Republican, for every major bill. Dream on John, because that would be like "framing" the issues, and Democrats don't do that ever.
But reporters are still curious about those in charge, and their records to date, like Paul Ryan's:
Why is why Ryan has been so spectacularly wrong about inflation, the dollar, and, well, the whole economy the past few years.
"Pressed for cash, the government will take the easy way out," Ryan mused in 2013, and "crank up the printing presses." The result wouldn't be any run-of-the-mill inflation, but rather "the debasement of our currency." And in case you have any doubt how bad that would be, well, Lenin supposedly said that's the best way to destroy the capitalist system. So pretty bad.
In 2009, he philosophized that "a lot of people would observe that we are right now
living in an Ayn Rand novel." A year later, he all but accused the Fed of using the printing press to pay our bills … And in 2011, he somberly warned then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke that "there is nothing more insidious that a country can do its citizens than debase its currency."
It was a weird thing to be worrying about. Inflation was just 1.7 percent when Ryan brought up dollar debasement. It's 1.2 percent now. And rather than being debased, debauched or otherwise devalued, the dollar is actually up 13 percent against a broad index of currencies over this time … there hasn't been anything resembling "debasement."
Why has Paul Ryan been wrong about everything? Well, he missed what a lot of people miss, which is that the rules change when interest rates are zero. You won't learn that from Ayn Rand's books, though.
Hey doorknob,
ReplyDeleteThe dollar isn't rising because it is getting stronger. It is rising because it is on its deathbed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHsESOY6kNA
And if you believe inflation is only 1.2 percent, try measuring it against ground beef last year.
And if you can think of anyone in their right mind who would want to loan $100,000 to the US government over 30 years for $2,500 in return, I would like to know what they're smoking because there is no other way out of servicing this debt besides hyperinflation or default.
Are you tired of being DEAD WRONG. In fact, people can't buy enough of our debt, which is why yields are plummeting.
DeletePaul Ryan is paid to lie in the face of reality, but what's your excuse, basement boy?
In a Wall Street Journal article Charles Schwab calculated that with $11 in short-term accounts bearing very low interest, that would amount to a loss of $2.915 trillion of interest income over the past 6 years.
ReplyDelete