Posted on 12/24/2023 7:55:50 AM PST by millenial4freedom
Ahead of the December meeting, one economist argued the Federal Reserve's "dangerously high" interest rate hikes are transitory, and that the Fed will make cuts in the first quarter of next year.
On "Mornings with Maria," Monday, TrendMacro CIO Donald Luskin explained his frustration with the Fed's rate hike campaign and his economic outlook.
"Please, please, please, can we all stop listening to Jay Powell? Please. Mr. Inflation is transitory. He is still so embarrassed about that one. He's now insisting that his dangerously high-interest rates are not transitory. Oh, they will be," Luskin said. "Inflation is collapsing and he knows it. It's turning into deflation like I warned last time we talked. There will be rate cuts in Q1."
Deflation in the US is pretty uncommon. That tends to be Great Depression type of stuff. Way to go Brandon.
BS
We can’t create paper money at the breakneck speed we are doing on top of nearly incalculable debt and get deflation.
Every other country that has devalued their currency like this has had hyper inflation. It is utter hubris to believe the US is somehow immune to the laws of economics which rule everyone else.
I think the only way we get deflation is a genuine collapse and defaulting on government debt.
Interest rates are not nearly high enough. One thing I’ll give credit to the Russians on is raising rates to 16% to tamp down inflation.
Inflation is going to reignite.
5%
5% is not high when considering the inflation rate.
The Fed is all about stopping Trump.
Maybe. Things never remain static but we tend to think they will.
The Fed is currently in QT, not QE. M2 is down nearly $1.5 trillion since they started. There is still about $3-4 trillion in excess liquidity, but it is being destroyed at a rate of about $75 billion a month.
Deflation means that average folks will actually be able to afford cars and homes.
We can’t have that!
;-)
We know there is now a Federal Employee pay raise, a raise in Social Security benefits—both taking place on January 1.
The huge federal deficit means that money must be borrowed.
Good luck with deflation while that is happening.
A word of caution. There is DELFLATION and Disinflation. What they are yammering about is disinflation. Or slowing inflation. DEFLATION occurs in times like Hoover’s/FDR’s series of recessions where idiotic government policies send prices collapsing. Like FDR’s Henry Wallace who ordered the slaughter of millions of hogs to drive down prices. It worked but had a snowball effect on the economy.
I am aware of that.
Where do you calculate in the $1-2 trillion a year federal deficit? I gave a range because the published deficit is highly massaged and is greater than claimed. Where is that “money” coming from?
And the Fed balance sheet? It’s been a while but the last I saw it was huge. Plus the the real market value of the Fed holdings is a lot less than their balance on the books. There has to be a reckoning due there.
“Deflation means that average folks will actually be able to afford cars and homes.”
I can remember when I was a kid and saw a list of retail prices from the depression. I said to my father, who lived through the Great Depression, “How could it have been so bad, when things were so cheap?”
His answer has stuck with me for many years, “When you have no money at all, it doesn’t matter how low the prices are.” That’s what a real Depression is. Deflation is one thing, Depression is another. And as dearly beloved President Obama said about dearly beloved President Joe, never underestimate his ability to f__ things up.
Deflation is a thing of the past. Now that money is simply digital credits, it can be “printed” and distributed immediately to keep inflation going forever.
My wife’s family were farmers during the Depression—here in CT so no “dust bowl” issues.
They did fine—had plenty of food (had cows, sheep), did barter with neighbors who were also farmers—used a woodstove for heat and had plenty of firewood they cut down on their property.
The clothes were hand-me-downs and of course nothing was wasted.
That generation was all “hoarders”—when they died it took weeks to clean out their modest houses.
Wallace ordered the slaughter of pigs to alleviate “overproduction,” which he saw as the reason for prices dropping too far and fast. His goal was to increase spending power to farmers by raising the price of agricultural goods, ie decreasing supply in the supply/demand equation.
Went to grocery for celery yesterday - at $5.00 a bunch I walked out!
I don’t even think high interest rates can do inflation now. That is effective when you have inflation from an overheating economy. (as they say). Today the inflation comes from truly deranged government spending. We are adding 1 trillion of additional debt every 100 days now. High interest in the early 80s happened when America was the worlds biggest creditor. Now we are the largest debtor in all of human history. There isn’t even a close second.
I think they are crashing it on purpose. Think of someone hopelessly in debt who plans to file for bankruptcy next week…. So this weekend they buy rounds at the bar, trips to Vegas, big screen TVs, and a huge grocery trip to Costco. They have no intent to ever pay the credit card bill.
That’s how the US government looks to me right now.
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