Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Statement from Jerome Powell

federalreserve.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 871 posts

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#361

Post by ProllyInfamous »

et-al wrote: post #46

What's a pleb supposed to do now? Convert every paycheck to BTC, gold, or EUR?

The most-unamerican thing you can do right now is HOLD bitcoin/gold/silver.

If you still want fiat — and they're available — Swiss Francs are deflating least-quickly.

Otherwise, as a fellow pleb, my best advice is to get enough bullets for occassional hunting (and other tax-free methods of living) and protection.

If you're of a draftable age/gender, I'd either get extremely fit or extremely disabled. If you're a lard-ass, I'd get to a state where you can live without medicines.

—fellow blue collar american

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#363

Post by jordanpg »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #340
jordanpg wrote: post #310

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.

> Not sure being out in the street really does much.

I agree; this phrase was just a stand in for doing something -- anything -- about the state of affairs I don't like. Other than things I can do from my couch like commenting on HN.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#364

Post by x3n0ph3n3 »

patcon wrote: post #336
afavour wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They literally have an entire web site dedicated to this that explains the reasons for the cost increase: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/building-project-faqs.ht... Could it have been cheaper? Possibly. But let’s be real here. It’s blatant intimidation.

tds_is_real = "the deep state is real" Enough to know we shouldn't bother replying

I thought it stood for Trump derangement syndrome, but you might be right.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#365

Post by estearum »

epolanski wrote: post #359
estearum wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A little known fact is that the best way to have political power is to acquire it via the political process.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#366

Post by [deleted] »

breakyerself wrote: post #312
jacquesm wrote: post #304

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.

[deleted]

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#367

Post by dredmorbius »

Uvix wrote: post #341
afavour wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the test beyond that is how willing the next government will be to codify meaningful changes into law. After Trump’s first time it’s as if there was a big sigh of relief and a notion of “well, we just won’t do that again”. It’s very clear now that we need a lot more regulation of what presidents can and cannot do. Not to mention judicial reform. But if you’re a democrat theoretically getting power in 2028 you…

Not sure how regulation helps when you have a Congress and/or Supreme Court willing to ignore it, alas.

Both institutions, and those who've failed them, must of course be addressed directly.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#368

Post by zozbot234 »

throw0101c wrote: post #319
zozbot234 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually quite correct. The Fed Funds policy interest rate is a clumsy instrument because it involves chasing the ever-shifting balancing point of an inherently unstable system. You "cut" rates to increase money creation, which actually pushes your long-term rates higher due to expected inflation and leads to even more money creation for a constant policy rate, and vice versa. This can all be fixed very simpl…

> The Fed Funds policy interest rate is a clumsy instrument because it involves chasing the ever-shifting balancing point of an inherently unstable system. I don't know about "inherently unstable system", given that as central bank independence has grown so has, generally speaking, monetary stability: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moderation

Great Moderation basically involved the adoption of price stability as a long-term policy target, as opposed to trying to keep long-term fixed exchange rates. There's no reason to change the policy target, the issue is wrt. the policy mechanism/instrument.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#369

Post by estearum »

jordanpg wrote: post #360
estearum wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, there are more and less effective ways to engage in politics. But given that people spend nearly every waking moment now staring at information-on-screen-piped-through-internet, it's frankly ridiculous to keep up this "Internet isn't real life" charade.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#370

Post by acdha »

wanderingmind wrote: post #306
cal_dent wrote: post #203

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.

Hasn't this always been the case, what is different right now is that the tech enables to do this at scale, at much higher frequency that makes them more audacious, since no regular person can keep up with it. The over saturation of lies/fake news has lead to numbness and the hyper-normalisation. So, unless something directly is affecting us currently, we won't care

No. The modern Republicans want you to believe that because it’s an easy path to despair and inaction, which means they win, but the magnitude and degree have varied significantly in the past. Where we are now is something living Americans don’t have experience with unless they escaped somewhere like the Balkans in the 90s.
Post reply on HN