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Statement from Jerome Powell

federalreserve.gov

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Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#461

Post by seanmcdirmid »

throw0101c wrote: post #314
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can dislike a solution but admit that you can't think of a better solution, or specify that it is better than an even worse solution. I can see why someone would have a issues with "a bunch of rich bankers appointed by politicians" controlling American monetary policy. But I can't really see a better way at least, until we can achieve a post-scarcity economy or something.

> I can see why someone would have a issues with "a bunch of rich bankers appointed by politicians" controlling American monetary policy. Yellen had a long academic career before going into public service (with various roles at the Fed before becoming Fed chair): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Yellen Bernanke had a strictly academic career before going into public service (and was/is probably one of the foremo…

Fair. I don't really have a preference for government, academic, or banking industry veterans.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#462

Post by Marsymars »

nabbed wrote: post #251
hash872 wrote: post #165

From an institutional engineering POV (warning- I am a grouchy old former political scientist), it would be interesting to come up with institutional solutions for some of the problems America is facing right now. Specifically I think I'd remove the Attorney General role from the President's authority and give it to Senate, to nominate & confirm exclusively. Let's say 51 votes to confirm and 55 votes to impeach. Even…

>Of course I would strongly prefer to not be a presidential system at all. Having grown up in the US and having blinders on, I always thought all those parliamentary systems seemed unstable and sometimes comical. But now I see the value in it. Once a leader has demonstrated he is not up to the task, has grown out-of-touch, or has descended into madness, he can be replaced by his party, and if that didn't happen, a no…

> Having grown up in the US and having blinders on, I always thought all those parliamentary systems seemed unstable and sometimes comical.

There are so many different variables between countries, and plain luck, that it's tough to extrapolate too much, but this just jumped out a bit for me as a Canadian - the average Canadian PM term has historically been marginally longer than the average American Presidential time in office.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#463

Post by drpepper42 »

tyrust wrote: post #454
drpepper42 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Lippmann school of democracy sort of predisposed that people were too stupid and that through journalists would emerge a reasonable set of choices. For the most part that matches the way politics worked in the USA and most democracies until recently. Unfortunately the internet disrupted things such that suddenly everyone needs to actually be democratically adept in at least some form more akin to the Dewey school…

Interesting comment. I haven't heard this problem phrased this way nor have I heard of these schools, do you have a recommendation for learning more about this?

Adapt! (Barbara Stiegler)

She puts it all together relatively succinctly if dense. You can just read Dewey too if you want to be closer to the source. He's a bit more interesting because it is more of the road not taken out of the progressive era.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#464

Post by baby_souffle »

Aurornis wrote: post #188
renegade-otter wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America has enough power to help someone else. No one has the power to save America from itself. The cavalry is not coming, and this fire is going to take its course. One day, maybe we will rebuild from scratch.

> One day, maybe we will rebuild from scratch The current situation is bad, but this is just doomerism. The current administration will end. Trump can't live forever. His approval rating is already low and falling. We're in for a bumpy ride, but then it's going to start reverting toward the mean. Not necessarily back to the way things were, but periods of extreme like this are followed by a reversion to the mean more…

> Trump can't live forever.

Trump is a symptom of the problem, not the actual problem.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#465

Post by cal_dent »

spamizbad wrote: post #13
davidw wrote: post #3

This is... just crazy. One of those mostly boring bits of plumbing that has been left to professionals throughout the entire 50 years of my life - and they're trying to wreck it.

It's also for very stupid reasons: The fed dropping rates to the degree that would satisfy Donald Trump would greatly accelerate inflation which in turn would further upset voters, who would in turn blame Donald Trump (just like they did Biden before).

especially as if the risk premium for the US increases because of the methods used to challenge Fed independence, the rates that truly matter, treasury yields, will increase causing limiting how much consumers can actually benefit from lower headline rates

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#466

Post by garyfirestorm »

mrtksn wrote: post #441
jiggawatts wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was the owner and CEO of a private company — essentially a dictator without even a board or the SEC keeping him in check. For decades he hasn’t had to tolerate “checks and balances”! Nobody could say “no” and retain their jobs under him. The American public decided to put this type of person in charge. The consequences were predicted.

[flagged]

> US was let to accumulate immense wealth… with no pushback the last 35 years

Proceeds to explain how further exploitation of others will be beneficial to everyone

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#467

Post by Tanoc »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #26
Loughla wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just a cynical view that enough voters can be convinced it's the other side at fault? Someone who supports trump, please let me know the logic on this. Genuinely. I'm trying to read other places about these charges but they're just so slanted that they're not really trustworthy. Is there anything to this, or is it really just to pressure the federal reserve?

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.

I have a family member like this who I interact with almost every day. When Renee Good was fatally shot in the face three times this family member said that she deserved it for "getting in the way" and that if she just ignored them she wouldn't have been murdered. With all of the video recordings that have come out and been extensively disseminated, pretty much everyone knows that she moved out of the way and stopped, and it was Jonathan Ross who initiated the encounter. There is no way to "get out of the way" and "ignore them" when armed figures enact force on whims. But people like my family member believe that these armed figures direct violence towards those who are dangerous rather than simply directing violence to anybody who is close enough to hurt. You cannot reason with people like that because they retroactively justify any harm in order to protect their belief in the systems of enforcement. To them order and structure are more important and valuable than agency and safety or in some cases even life itself.

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#468

Post by IAmGraydon »

prodigycorp wrote: post #11

Many times I've disagreed with Powell, but major props for this statement.

Would love to hear what you've disagreed with because the man pulled off what can only be interpreted as a miracle in landing the economy nearly back on the 2% target with no massive economic problems after we went through an unprecedented pandemic, during which Trump printed $3.5 Trillion, causing massive inflation (yes, Trump did that, not Biden).

Re: Statement from Jerome Powell

#469

Post by LexiMax »

Analemma_ wrote: post #39
Loughla wrote: post #4

Holy shit. So our monetary policy will be just set at the arbitrary whims of the president if this new scheme works. Why does all of this feel like it's just sliding completely out of hand? Am I just being a doomer?

I hope I turn out to be wrong, but the most convincing explanation I've seen for the "why" is that the 1945-2000 period was an anomaly, and now we're reverting to the mean: despotic governments, frequent wars for territory, and massive wealth inequality leading to powerful oligarchies as the only other important political players aside from the despot. This was the norm for the overwhelming majority of human history…

It's not the only anomaly. There was a previous period of long peace between 1815 and 1914, between the Napoleonic Wars and WW1.

This balance of power was carefully set up in the Congress of Vienna following the (first) defeat of Napoleon, and was ended by the ambitions of a Kaiser who desired the prestige of globe-spanning empire yet couldn't diplomacy his way out of a wet paper bag to realize that empire without bumbling into war.

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