I want to stress the importance of how much I respect this gentleman before I get into my problems with his views. I am nowhere near accusing Ezra of misleading us on this issue, I think it is very possible his superior analytical understanding of our macro economics leads him to this conclusion. And in this respect he is more than right.
Fundamentally speaking, this move by the fed will in fact support the creation of jobs and create security for large institutions to create more jobs hypothetically – in the long run. But when you say, “Unemployed, someone has your back. Bernanke announces #QE3″; and then go on to explain how in a perfect world this means everyone will suddenly get back to work, we are only kidding ourselves by looking at this issue from this perspective.
As stated before, this may perhaps stimulate new job growth. But not nearly as many jobs that are needed to really make an impact across the board, and not nearly as fast as these jobs are actually needed.
What really got me here is that when Ezra made his statement, I was thinking, “Oh, ok, Bernanke is going to appropriate some funds from the imaginary infinite sums of printable currency to relieve the long term unemployed. Or perhaps attempt to compel congress to pass the Obama administration’s Jobs Act. Or perhaps Joe Biden’s long shelved Transportation and Infrastructure Bill. Or perhaps do something I had not previously imagined would or could have been done by this seemingly unaccountable institution that basically owns our country (do your diligence, be responsible, research what the fed is, what they do, and who actually owns it(or us lol)- not now another conversation entirely).
But to my astonishment, Ezra kept talking, and talking, and talking. Educating us on why jobs have not exploded onto this market. Explaining why market makers and business conglomerates are not hiring. Explaining the micro economics of American employer’s insecurities on investing in the current state of affairs. So I waited for the big boozer. At least now, Bernanke, someone not restrained by John Boehner, is actually going to do something for the unemployed on the job fronts. Something that actually mattered.
But if you were waiting for something tangible. Something to place your hope on. Something to raise your prospects of improvement in this arena in a timely effective sense, you were wrong.
So what is the Fed going to do for the unemployed? A big fat … wait for it……..
NOTHING!
The Fed is going to buy up risk assets and foreclosed and unsold real estate. Wow! Can you see the avalanche of Jobs saturating the market at an unprecedented rate? I can’t and I can promise you, neither will you.
No, but wait I am serious. Despite the eloquent macro economic analysis given by the bright and very well educated political analyst Ezra Klein; DO NOT be fooled! The fed is not going to to do jack shit for the unemployed and the reasoning provided to the contrary is a joke at best. The same as John Boehner and his landslide historical victory in the House achieved on the pipe-dream that these liars would actually pass legislation to create some jobs. Again, I will restate my respect for Ezra, on his accomplishments and political analysis. But when you fall back down to reality, the truth is that this argument is akin to telling me that the Bush Tax Cuts extended by the congress and signed by Obama will create the jobs this country needs. It hasn’t and never will.
Be realistic with yourself. We’ve had QE1 and QE2…where are the jobs?! This argument is as old as the recession itself and it really saddens me to see this sold to us by such a young bright individual not influenced by the ridiculousness of the political process when making analytical assumptions. Fool me once… fool me twice…yada yada you know the rest.
I respect Ezra’s macro economic analysis but have to respectfully disagree. Now you’ve heard Ezra’s analysis if you follow him or his show, now I hope you to listen to mine.
The fed is a group of International Bankers. They are not American in the sense of the word. They dictate and control monetary policy and control the value of our dollar by curbing or instigating inflation. This is achieved by manipulation of interest rates and printing money, or any combination of the two. They are not beholden to anyone or anything in this country. No political process, no realistic laws or controls. They own the financial system of this country and therefore us, but let’s not travel that far down that road so as not to diminish the real issue at hand here.
What has occurred, in my narrow view of course, is that the housing market has bottomed out. This we know. There are minimal but stable solid gains in the housing market sustained for some time. Now in order to support jobs(winks) for the third time we are going to inject massive loads of printed cash into the same banks and banking systems that precipitated the housing market collapse and the banking crisis. We are going to reward the greedy morons who collapsed our economy, and in doing so, handed the federal reserve the largest transfer of personal wealth and tax revenue into the hands of the crooked financial system and the federal reserve. Owned by who?? International Bankers… NOT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
Now when you say the “FED” is going to buy up troubled assets and foreclosed properties, what are they really buying up? American property. They are exchanging a mirage for value. To my astonishment, not a soul understands this. They are paying imaginary dollars for actual items of real value. This is what you are not made to understand.
We are being bombarded with QE3 and the FED and this notion that the key to recovery is in their hands. But the opposite is actually true. The Federal Reserve is actually profiting or going to profit immensely from all this quantitative easing, and they will do so all while we finance them to do it. We are actually held accountable for the purchases the federal reserve makes yet they will hold the deeds. They will raise the rates when they are ready to sell these assets back, after they have doubled or tripled their returns and the Unites States government and the taxpayers will be on the hook to pay the federal reserve back(which happens the moment we print the money- it is called inflation).
This is a really amazing paradigm that should be really understood by all those involved. Think about the implications of printing now more hundreds of billions of dollars. Gas is over 4.00(premium to me thanks to ethanol diluting) in a time when it should be falling. QE3 means the dollar must inevitably weaken, and to what end? This means inflation. If economists use the fact that the USD is off it’s lows at the start of this crisis to justify risking yet even more inflation, this is a catastrophic mistake. The dollar isn’t strong, Europe is crumbling. There is a huge difference. The benchmark currency valued against the dollar is the Euro, and because of it’s apparent weakness due to their own crisis it appears our dollar is strong enough to absorb a new round of easing but it is not.
Gold has exploded to +1600 USD an ounce when in 2006 it was only 300. Do the math on that! Your same dollar in 2006 now holds more or less 20% of the true value it held only 6 years ago. But we should allow further easing? Hell no, but anyone that actually has anything to do with America is powerless to stop Bernanke. Whatever he says, goes. I wonder how that crept into our society? An entity outside our control has our economic destiny by the gonads, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Imagine that.
What I want you to do is think, critically and not only on the surface. Certainly not based on false assumptions of a perceived romance and union of The Federal Reserve, Quantitative Easing, and the Labor market. That symbiosis will never exist. It will never create jobs. What it will do, is continue selling our country’s real value and assets to a union of International Bankers in exchange for monopoly money. It doesn’t matter how much you have if it is only play money! This may preserve some jobs, but create? You’ll have to show me the (real) money on that idea.
We are only bailing out the banks and relieving a stagnant economy on the back of another false recovery. Buying up the excess real estate at the lowest possible price from banks is not solving anything. Why? Because there are no real people buying up homes. Certainly not at the rate the Federal Reserve desires the housing market to recover. This will only raise prices, and in the long run interest rates. We will hand money to irresponsible banks that bought too many mortgage backed securities and derivatives and they will in turn hold out and not be inclined to lend money. At least not at these historically low rates.
This practice is scheduled to continue to 2015 if not indefinitely. If the Federal Reserve buys up 80% or more of all of the distressed assets from banks in order to fool us into thinking the housing market is turning positive, this will only inflate housing prices and interest rates. This will distort the true values of homes. Inflated based on manufactured market conditions. In essence, if you manage to secure credit from a bank to buy a home in 2015 you are too late. You’ll be paying higher interest on your loans, and you will also be paying an inflated price for the home based on the current availability of homes which shouldn’t be much because the fed should own most of them by then, since the banks won’t lend. You’ll be buying too much of the fluff and not enough of the real stuff. Your dollar will also be worth dirt then as well, because there is no end in sight to the practice of diluting our money supply with more monopoly money.
How this all ends up with the fed having an unemployed individual’s back is beyond all reason. In my humble opinion of course.
But I do have one play on this. If you do want to profit, as the FED will from this action, you have to go long the USD vs the major Currencies, or Short a good dollar ETF. Gah!
