From today’s cnbc.com:
Uncertainty about U.S. fiscal policy, Europe’s sovereign crisis and slower global growth have turned the U.S. economy into what feels like a slow-moving zombie, leaving businesses and consumers hesitant and reluctant to act.
Those factors combined to hit business confidence and have led to slower activity, evident in Friday’s report showing just 80,000 new jobs created in June. That follows a sluggish 77,000 payrolls in May and 68,000 in April, making the second quarter the worst quarter for jobs in two years.
That report sparked immediate market talk of a new round of asset purchases or “quantitative easing” by the Fed, but the number was not weak enough to generate a clear consensus on when or whether the Fed would act.
Signs We Are Approaching a Zombie Economy
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48096924
The article makesa good point, however the real problem iis brenanke is doing the best he can while the president and Congress is not doing their job. Specifically the Reid has blocked every piece of legislation that has passed the House.
A very good article, as well as the comments there that follow it.
One of the things ROn Paul had correct is to audit the Federal Reserve.
I agree that uncertainty is contributing to the problem, but low interest rates are not creating the uncertainty. The federal government (in particular Obama) is creating the uncertainty because everyone is running around worried sick about what crazy freaking thing the 1st affirmative action idiot president might do next, and how what he has already done (ie. Obamacare) will affect them.
All low interest rates does is make people less likely to stash their money in a CD or savings account and instead invest it in something with a decent return on investment. Heck I would go so far as to say that keeping interest rates low is the ONLY thing Obama has done right.
The first place to instill fiscally responsible behavior is at the banks. Want to see a sh!t storm? Allow rates to rise and force the banks to mark to market. Still waiting for someone to go to jail for 2008.
The Great Depression was in fact only Great because of Keynsian government reaction.
Roosevelt spent like a drunken sailor and only made it worse. The greatest con job in history was the notion that Roosevelt protected people by giving them jobs. He crushed any chance of them getting a real middle class job and then let them go cut bushes on government land for room and board.
Fighting the LAST depression with the last depression’s tactics WAS a disaster. The New Deal and other government interventions extended and made the depression deeper.
Alas, Obama will NEVER accept such changes....