Two short months ago I wrote about the unbelievable action that the Federal Reserve took to prop up our sagging stock market by injecting billions of dollars into the economy, and that it didn’t take a freshman econ whiz kid to tell that this would undoubtedly lead to an increase in the inflation rate. Strangely enough I found very few business reporters that even discussed the impact of the Fed’s foolhardy actions, and fewer still…
Category: Rants and Observations
California Dreaming . . . . .
I just got back into town after spending four days in my old stomping grounds of northern California. The San Francisco peninsula to be more specific, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. My wife and I lived there for six years after grad school until we moved to Michigan. The occasion was my wife’s 30 year High School Reunion. I think you get the picture. While she and I did get the chance…
Michigan out 28,000 jobs – August’s 7.4% jobless rate is 14-year high.
Excerpted from the Detroit News this morning. . . .  Michigan‘s unemployment rate in August was the worst since since September 1993.  Massive automotive buyouts and a sharp decline in residential construction were cited as factors for the state’s jobless rate. Last month 28,000 jobs were lost in Michigan, bringing the total number lost since this time last year to 96,000. Since August 2006, employment in Michigan has dropped by 2 percent while nationally it has increased by…
You Never Could Tax Your Way to Prosperity
Lest you think that this is a diatribe related to politics, relax. Long, long ago I gave up letting the micro-brains in government (both elected and unelected) impact by disposition. No, this is a post about economics. And basic economics at that. I have long believed that the framers of our constitution should have included a minimum number of basic economics courses at the university level as requirement for holding any elected or unelected position…
They Did WHAT?!?
WOW. Again. I had written up a long follow-up post on this Federal Reserve intervention that I had planned to post yesterday, but I got hung up in meetings and couldn’t get to it. I wrote long (and eloquently, I might add) about how there was NO possible way that after their dump-and-run “liquidity injection†they could even THINK about lowering interest rates for AT LEAST the next two to three months. About how the…
The Sins of the Past
Wow. I never thought that I’d see it happen. The Federal Reserve, that mysterious, secretive, “quasi-governmental†entity that has made a regular habit of thumbing it’s nose at the general pubic and the day to day performance of the market, has succumbed. They have fallen. They have gone over to the dark side and made a wholly populist decision. And unfortunately it’s not just the Fed – it’s a number of other central banks around…