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Statement from Jerome Powell

federalreserve.gov

351–360 of 871 posts

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#351

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the financial apparatus in general but it is more than a little heartening to see someone in the federal government with a spine for once.

He's one of very few adults left at that level.

It might be childish, but I think the “act like an adult” (or not) is a good way to frame the bad behavior that’s been so present lately.

It encapsulates so much of how I want to describe things.

Selfish behavior - this adult is just a child who didn’t learn to share.

Mean and vindictive behavior - didn’t learn to empathize as a kid

Lying? You’re still a child. Grow up and then join the adults.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stated differently, if things really are so bad (and I would be the first to agree that things are pretty bad), then why are so many comfortable people (like me) not out on the street every day? There are a lot of reasons for that, of course, but the bottom line is that when things get bad enough -- much worse than they are today -- then more people will take to the street, along with whatever sacrifice that entails.…

Not sure being out in the street really does much. Gives the jack booted thugs an excuse for a little recreational violence. A general strike might have an effect, but I'm not sure how you organize such a thing.

You can't, because everytime that happens, a group comes out of the woodworks that says X, Y, and Z need to be done before a general strike can even be considered.

X, Y, and Z usually involve community building, mutual aid, strike funds, housing security, and other precarity reducing actions.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not arguing against QE I am saying there was too much of it and we could have had recovered just fine without the severe inflation that landed us in the current predicament.

Lower inflation and higher growth than every peer nation? The Fed absolutely crushed it. Totally unambiguous.

Here are some ambiguous things:

1. Inflation

2. Comparing peer economies

3. Counterfactual timelines

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#354
post #217

The US drift into Adam Curtis' broad thesis in hypernormalisation(a) continues apace I see. Great to see J Pow putting up a fight but I fear this is all going one way. (a) >We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie. They know we know they lie. They don't care. We say we care but do nothing.

> I fear this is all going one way That belief isn't the consequence of the situation, but the cause. There is ample ability to change events, but people must believe they can act and act together, as they have for centuries of democracy and for all human history. They do it in Iran. The Republicans and MAGA movement have made changes that would have been unbelievable ten years ago.

If food keeps going up, it might get there but in the affluent west we run on our stomachs and as long as most of the middle class can still afford bread there won't be enough of a mass mobilization to affect any meaningful change.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I implore you to stop being credulous before it's too late. Trump supporters deeply believe, and are not shy about saying, that anyone who stops Trump from achieving his political goals should be imprisoned or murdered.

Holy shit. If you believe even a small minority actually want that, please unplug and talk to real people in meat space.

Have you actually unplugged and talked to people in meat space about the actions in Minneapolis?

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the fed replaced the gold standard.

No it did not. I don't know why people repeat this so often but it is very frustrating. Nixon unilaterally ended the gold standard because the US was printing money to pay for Vietnam and the rest of the world called the US on its bullshit. The end of the gold standard is relatively recent in history and the verdict is still out on the impact.

The post-World War II Bretton Woods system was a limited form of the pre 1920s depression gold standard.

Both the silver standard and bimetallism have been more common than the gold standard.

Tying complex multi faceted economies to the physical abundance of specific raw materials fails to capture the full value of activities and assets.

The true gold standard was a blip from the 1870s to the early 1920s.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#358

Shots fired. Even the republicans will not be able to ignore this and they know that if Powell caves in the American economy will likely collapse. So who will speak up in his defense?

It's probably going to collapse anyway. He's been hitting all of the pillars of the economy with a sledge hammer.

I wonder how the stock market would look if AI wasn't such a big driving factor. Or how it would look if there was no sledge hammer. Insane times.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Posting online literally is political activity. You think the hordes of young men who put Trump into power were convinced by mass public demonstration? No: posts on the Internet.

Elections are a thing, they are marketing.

I'm talking at expressing dissent. On that, internet achieves little.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Posting online literally is political activity. You think the hordes of young men who put Trump into power were convinced by mass public demonstration? No: posts on the Internet.

> Posting online literally is political activity.

This guy's book convinced me otherwise: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-...

"Political hobbyism" is things like commenting on the internet, as distinct from going out and convincing people to vote differently or running for offfice.

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