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US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018

theguardian.com

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Re: US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018

#691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then inflation will defeat itself by its own, per your reasoning. The actual truth is to the extent raising interest rates does anything at all to prices, it is via reducing employment.

Yes, inflation would burn itself out with permanent price increases in a world where the Fed wasn't holding down the print button. The goal of increased interest rates is to make borrowing more expensive, which means business and consumers would cut down on investment or loans, since those are good mechanisms for money creation. It slows the velocity of money and therefore demand. Of course, we also have supply shock…

> The goal of increased interest rates is to make borrowing more expensive, which means business and consumers would cut down on investment or loans, since those are good mechanisms for money creation. It slows the velocity of money and therefore demand.

And the business that don't get as easy credit will not hire as many people. Let's not hide behind the abstractions that exact causal mechanism here.

It's usually the same barely employed marginalized folks that are "last to higher, first to fire" too. This is empirically established.

Some service workers loose my job, but stupid investment still pours into blockchain bullshit? What a crude lever this monetary policy is!

It would be much better to adopt some new more precise levers. For example, the rules on the collateral for loans could be changed to pop a bubble. Or Gasoline prices should go up way more (with a new UBI to compensate) to encourage rationing of that key thing while not effecting demand overall.

Basically, the policy should match the underlying cause in the supply shocks. Treating all inflations as all the same is crude and punishes poor people extra for no justifiable reason.

Re: US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018

#692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MMT is not evidence based, it is in no way factual (it is neither backed by facts, nor is it concerned with facts) - it is a conjecture about what might happen in the best of all possible worlds based on abstract arguments about perfectly spherical economies in a vacuum. Factual is entirely off base as a descriptor and has been picked here in an attempt to make it seem grounded in reality and without challenge.

I expect at this point you're actually disagreeing in some sense with what dragonwriter believes but I don't know and I won't speak for him. My point here is not to defend MMT but the quality of the conversation. If someone comes along and says Modern Moo-netary Theory says we should to build too many catapults, and another someone points out that the theory doesn't address questions of "should", pointing out that th…

Nobody said should, so your objection is irrelevant.

Re: US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018

#693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect at this point you're actually disagreeing in some sense with what dragonwriter believes but I don't know and I won't speak for him. My point here is not to defend MMT but the quality of the conversation. If someone comes along and says Modern Moo-netary Theory says we should to build too many catapults, and another someone points out that the theory doesn't address questions of "should", pointing out that th…

Nobody said should, so your objection is irrelevant.

There was an obvious implication that it made recommendations (in order for it to have "been tried") which I still believe is what dragonwriter was objecting to.

My objection is to people talking past each other rather than engaging (whether intentionally or unintentionally) and remains as relevant as ever.

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