Tag: Federal Reserve

ECONOMICS: Inflation reduces real wages

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/05/fed-raise-interest-rates-shaft-american-workers-robert-reich

The FED is about to raise interest rates and shaft American workers – again
Robert Reich — Sun 6 Feb 2022 01.00 EST

  • Policymakers fear a labor shortage is pushing up wages and prices. Wrong. Real wages are down and workers are struggling

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Fed policymakers are poised to raise interest rates at their March meeting and then continue raising them, in order to slow the economy. They fear that a labor shortage is pushing up wages, which in turn are pushing up prices – and that this wage-price spiral could get out of control.

It’s a huge mistake. Higher interest rates will harm millions of workers who will be involuntarily drafted into the inflation fight by losing jobs or long-overdue pay raises. There’s no “labor shortage” pushing up wages. There’s a shortage of good jobs paying adequate wages to support working families. Raising interest rates will worsen this shortage.

There’s no “wage-price spiral” either, even though Fed chief Jerome Powell has expressed concern about wage hikes pushing up prices. To the contrary, workers’ real wages have dropped because of inflation. Even though overall wages have climbed, they’ve failed to keep up with price increases – making most workers worse off in terms of the purchasing power of their dollars.

*** end quote ***

It’s a fact of life the at the FED’s 2% inflation target is a joke.  The FED has debased the currency of 99% of its value with its “2% target”!  But over and above that, the inflation has been robbing poor people, working slobs, and senior citizens on fixed income.

So maybe a good liberal like Reich might be enlisted into the “End The Fed” movement.

IMHO we need to go back to “real money” aka gold and silver.

Under hard money, prices go down and real wages go up naturally.

—30—

MONEY: Virginia repeals sales taxes on money

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http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2018/01/now-in-effect-virginia-law-takes-first-step-to-support-sound-money/

Now in Effect: Virginia Law Takes First Step to Support Sound Money

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RICHMOND, Va. (Jan. 7, 2018) –  On Jan. 1, a Virginia law that repeals sales taxes from some purchases of gold and silver went into effect. It represents an important first step toward encouraging its regular use as currency and breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

A bipartisan coalition of delegates and senators sponsored House Bill 1668 (HB1668) and Senate Bill 934 (SB934). The legislation exempts gold, silver, and platinum bullion or legal tender coins whose sales price exceeds $1,000 from state sales tax. Each piece of gold, silver, or platinum or legal tender coin need not exceed $1,000, provided that the sales price of one entire transaction of such pieces exceeds $1,000. With gold over $1,000 an ounce, a single bullion coin will exceed this threshold.

Under the new law, the exemption will remain in place until June 30, 2022.

*** end quote ***

This seems to be the first step to “killing” the Fed.

It’s a backdoor way but who cares how we can do it. Just that we do!

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MONEY: Bitcoin “Not Backed”; so what “backs” FRNs?

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https://fee.org/articles/fed-official-decries-bitcoin-as-not-backed/

Friday, December 01, 2017

Fed Official Decries Bitcoin as “Not Backed”
Bitcoin is backed by the use value of the distributed ledger in the underlying technology of the Blockchain.
by  Jeffrey A. Tucker

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Randal K. Quarles, a Trump administration appointee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Vice Chair for bank supervision, has given a lengthy speech (“Thoughts on Prudent Innovation in the Payment System”) that directly targets Bitcoin as a danger to the monetary and financial system.

To reiterate, an official speaking for the nation’s central bank that manages the global reserve currency – the institution that has long bragged about its power to bail out the entire world with the magic powers of the alchemist – has put down Bitcoin for being untrustworthy, unbacked, and unsound.

*** end quote ***

Will someone please tell me what is backing up the current Federal Reserve Notes that pass for “money” today?

I can’t believe the hubris of some people.

The Federal Reserve Note, since 1970, has lost 99.99% of its value. There maybe even some 9’s at the end of that percentage.

I’m just shaking me head at this “attack” on bitcoin.

I’m speechless.

You should be too.

Save your nickels! It’s only thing worth anything — it still has some silver content. For now!

Argh!

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ECONOMICS: The Federal Reserve is Financial Repression

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http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/88227/how-federal-reserve-purposely-attacking-savers

How The Federal Reserve Is Purposely Attacking Savers
But bungling badly as it does
by Chris Martenson
Monday, October 20, 2014, 12:36 PM

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he answer is that while inflation always steals from savers, it really does its dirty work when the central bank and government conspire to create a condition of pervasive and unavoidable negative real interest rates.

This is the heart of Financial Repression: an environment in which you literally cannot save money without paying a penalty.

The main takeaway of Chapter 18 on Fuzzy Numbers is not that the government fibs a little now and then (okay,all the time) merely because that’s politically expedient, but it does so in service to a larger and more pernicious aim: forcing people to accept an inflation rate that is higher than either their income growth and/or the market’s safe rate of return.

As soon as you are locked into a negative interest rate regime, your capital is losing purchasing power. But simple accounting rules dictate that loss of wealth had to go somewhere. So where did it go? To somebody else.

Negative real interest rates transfer money from every saver to every over-extended borrower. This is especially true with the government (largely because of its special revolving door relationship with the Fed, which both issues the money out of thin air and then buys government debt forcing rates into negative territory).

It’s really that simple. The Fed has openly and actively suppressed rates — not to help the credit markets, as they claim, but to engineer a condition of Financial Repression. Because that’s what the government needs to stealthily take your wealth to pay down the prior debts it accumulated.

*** end quote ***

The War on Savers, the War on Capital, and the War on the Poor, Middle Class, and Elderly all intersect with the Federal Reserve.

Zero Interest Rate DESTROYS these communities.

Think about it from an Eccky-or-Icky-nomics POV.

It’s saying that there is NO preference to delay consumption.

It’s also saying there is NO way to preserve wealth for later use in retirement.

Argh!

* Savers are “rewarded” with inflation that depreciates their purchasing power.

* Capital can’t be formed with paying the inflation penalty.

* Since the poor have to spend most, if not all, of their current income, they face the inflation that erodes their future standard of living.

* Middle Class “wealthy” can’t preserve their financial assets into retirement. Why do the near fraudsters / hucksters, who advertise gold collectibles for IRAs, strike a chord with the future retirees? It’s their only chance to preserve their buying power.

* The Elderly on pensions, social “in”security, or savings are screwed by inflation increasing their costs and their capital earns nothing.

So, why do “We, The Sheeple” put up with it?

Bread and circuses!

Argh!

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MONEY: FED screws retirees

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-the-fed-hurts-retirees.html

How the Fed Hurts Retirees
CNNMoney.com
By Annalyn Censky | CNNMoney.com
Fri, Mar 23, 2012 1:08 PM EDT

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The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates near zero since 2008, but the economic boost comes at the expense of these savers.

*** end quote ***

This is basically saying that the time preference for delaying consumption is ZERO!

When folks were planning their retirement decades ago, who would have guessed a zero interest rate scenario? Any financial advisor, who did, would looking for a job. There was always talk of the after tax interest rate minus the rate of inflation. That was figured at anywhere from 5 to 8%.

Yeah, right.

Now the after tax rate is ZERO and the inflation rate is guesstimate at 5%. (Pay no attention to the smoke and mirrors being blown up your <synonym for donkey> by the “news anchors”, the FED, politicians, and bureaucrats. You’ve seen the price of gas, the national debt, the amount of “dollars” being held by the various bailed out banks.)

The reason that the FED is holding the interest rate down is to allow the Gooferment to carry the national debt with ease.

The retirees are only one group that is being hurt.

There’s a long list; not the least of which is anyone considering making a capital investment. What is the true cost of capital? (I know some businesses that are making a 12% assumption. Based on historical averages in previous business plans.)

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MONEY: When does the inflation come?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/flash-editorials-march-3-2012-2/

Flash Editorials March 10, 2012
By Russell D. Longcore

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The Nation III: The Federal Reserve now owns more United States Treasury bonds (debt) than China. Think about what a mega-Ponzi scheme this is. The very entity that prints greenback dollars…creating money from paper and ink…prints up a few hundred billion and hands them to the US Treasury to buy debt, thereby propping up the government. It’s the highest form of counterfeiting ever witnessed in human history. The tragic part of this story is that the Fed cannot stop printing and buying. If other nations around the planet want to dump DC debt, the Fed will be forced to buy it so that the bond market does not crash. Get ready for hyperinflation, ladies and gentlemen. It’s coming to a wallet near you.

*** end quote ***

Paper money always fails eventually.

Who gets hurt? The poor, those on fixed incomes, the very young, and the very old.

Who makes out? The elite, the mobile, those with real skills / real capital, and those who “saved” in metals.

So, when?

That’s the 64k$ question!

We have to think it comes with a “tipping point” event (i.e., trouble in the Middle East; OPEC shifts to sell oil for gold; China further “diversifies” out of US debt).

We’re like the old sailors approaching the edge of the earth. Who knows what lies over the horizon?

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