304 Comments

You need or someone needs to send this column to the Fed folks.

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Lee, that is a great idea. The problem, those guys won't read it because Powell, the one-trick-pony simply can't see beyond raising or lowering interest rates. He gloats that he is going to rais them, and more than will be helpful. The man does not belong in charge of anything, just like the rest of the Republican mass he came from. Republicans want suffering because it will give them a chance to get elected as they whine that life is so hard and they can fix it. They can't fix anything and have proven it over and over, yet Powell's move will let the uninformed buy the BS again. Ugh!

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I send them anyway; if enough of us did it might make a difference. @FederalReserve @Potus @VP

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Thanks, Melissa!

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founding

Perhaps it would be better to send this to the president instead. And start a campaign to get Powell removed and replaced. By a progressive.

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hell! Some of us are informed now. Powell is working for the owners, the real Takers, Corporations, Hedge funds and their operators and the obscenely wealthy. Let's go after 'em!

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Agreed totally!

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The Feds ONLY tool is to raise or lower interest rates. We need to plead, beg, threaten with votes for Congress to get the courage to enact the legislation necessary to control inflation, as Dr. Reich suggests by taxing the obscene profits.

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But like Robert said, the only tool in the Fed's arsenal is raising interest rates. It can't pass the legislation needed to correct this situation. Better to contact your elected officials and Biden.

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You can do this yourself on twitter

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Alas, Melissa, the Fed members won't even read the tweets. They can't get past their biases toward the very rich and their contempt for those of us who are not the very rich. They will not suffer either. No skin in the game, no effort to actually help.

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founding

... but a machine could process the tweets - meaning that, if someone were motivated to so, they could write a program to analyze what is being posted (and such information could filter through - much as is the case for other quantitative studies, e.g. Five Thirty-Eight)...

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They may pay attention if more voters are tweeting about this.

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And President Biden. He has been raising his voice, and has the bully pulpit now. Come on, Joe! Give 'em hell!

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And enforce antitrust laws!

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Please send a copy to the UK Prime Minister as well. We are seeing the same response here.

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Richard Knight ; but will they listen to crazy, disaffected Yanks? Share the information with your countrymen and P.M. They will most likely have a good laugh at Americans' posts!

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Robert - am totally on your side as to cause of the inflation. My question - why is the Fed so dogged in its pursuit of (falling real) wages and the workers as the cause of it. Blind to corporate profits - or on their side so that we need to obfuscate in order to achieve our ends of more corporate profits and to hell with the workers? Can they really be that ruthless? Of course, these days one that is an academic question. When will someone on the right realize that without consumers there will be no consumer economy. You can only squeeze inequality so hard or the whole house will fall down for lack of support. When the pitchfork and torches marches begin, it will be too late.

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Eric, I think the Fed and the rich don't even think of consumers beyond theory. They don't actually do much if any direct consuming (see the Dr. Oz supermarket ad). They don't think they are being paid too much but are certain the people who clean their home or office are. The disconnect is striking, but from their perch, they either can't or don't want to see it. I think it's a combination of both. Wealth leads to obliviousness for some when it comes to people outside their purview, the ones they have no direct contact with. Empathy is weak with these ones.

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Well said. Not all the rich however, but I would think surely most. I observed these things you mentioned in my life also. It's the 'my happiness before your welfare' crowd. They don't see all the blessings they had in their lives and have to blow a horn whenever they take a small portion of their huge wealth to help important causes. A huge wealth they have mostly because of all the benefits given to those of very great wealth and nobody else. If there is a heaven and hell, the majority of the very wealthy will be in the majority, probably for the first time, in hell.

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I've been 'self-emplyed' most of my life (71 y.o. now) but have had several -very well to

do if not "filthy rich" clients that were very good to me, especially the last few years when I underwent double knee replacement surgery followed by strokes and coma. These 2 clients fronted me a goodly amount of $$ so I could go ahead with the surgery & then have supported me so I stay afloat (if not thriving) and housed. This current

trend of raising interest rates will and is making me a 'net negative consumer'. But isn't

'consuming' by the masses, the whole point of the - very VERY well to do - getting and keeping their 'fetid calf' lifestyles ? One of the most apropo to these times, is the YouTube video of Zager and Evans music: "In the Year 2525" with the 1927 film "Metropolis" showing in the background. [[ but then I've always been a Sci-Fi/Fantasy

nut ~ ]]

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Speaking of the Zager & Evans song, do you remember how bleak it made the future sound when we were listening to it back in 1969? Now it sounds almost polyannish to think our species will still exist by 2525, to say nothing of 9595.

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Thanks Jaime. I live in Seattle, now, and remember the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and that it displayed SO MUCH HOPE for the future and how new developments would make the 'world a better place'. Well, virtually none of that has happened of which the Fair displayed. i.e. the MonoRail only being developed for downtown Seattle and then even that was brought to a halt due to ever increasing maintenance costs (???). It's back up and running but mainly (only?) as a

tourist attraction from Seattle Center (Space Needle et al) to down town and back = a circular route. I also remember 'Robbie The Robot' being on display at the Fair - from TV and movie fame. So much for - hope - eh ?

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founding

The fed doesn't have an explicit mandate for full employment - but that is the crux of the problem: the implicit imperative to maximize employment isn't uniform (as the priority can vary between parties and even administrations); further, the theory is not fully developed (as the number of vacancies expected to materialize with the rate hikes which already have taken place did not - meaning that an "unprecedented policy environment" is exactly what the Fed is struggling with)...

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We are well beyond pitchforks and torches. The Fed could actually kill the Goose that lays the golden egg. Of course, with an election coming in the midterms that can affect '24 election, ; the more hamstrung the 'little people' are, fewer will be the small donations, which have been effective in the past. We will have to go without and dig deeper to support our candidates.

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This is the most depressing news I have heard since TFG was “elected” and his idol invaded Ukraine. We just cannot catch a break. Personally, I struggle to survive; work full time and yet feel like the proverbial hamster running on that wheel getting nowhere fast. Downtrodden in Maryland.

🌻

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Anne, it seems to me you are supposed to feel that way, or at least the rich and powerful want you to. They gain power as people feel more and more powerless and more and more stressed. I don't know how to stop the insanity either, but perhaps, finding ways to not feel like a hamster on a wheel will help because it pisses off the rich. Then, we can have energy to stand against them, starting at the polls.

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Ruth Sheets:

Thanks for the reply, you are absolutely right. When I voiced my innermost thoughts on this topic I knew I was among (mostly) friends. Never in a million years would I want to appear defeated to the MAGA GOP thuglicans. I am discouraged, but not defeated. I will do my part to try to maintain Democracy, that is for sure.

Again, thank you for your thoughtful and wise words.

Anne

Slava Ukraini 🌻

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I realize that this might trigger you, but it's not the MAGA GOP thuglicans who are doing this to you. In case you hadn't noticed they haven't been in power for two years. Biden kept J. Powell as Fed Chairman. You think that was an oversight?

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Really, they still hold tremendous power and they are beholden to big billionaires who want to maintain power and control. If we want services, they have to be paid for with taxes. Why do average folks keep voting against their own best interests and vote for people who give the rich and corporations low to no taxes. They scream about welfare for the poor which is a very small amount of the budget, but are fine with welfare for the rich. I just don’t get it. Follow the money and then tell me that the trickle down lie wasn’t about selling you a bridge

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Your first sentence above is the definition of fascism. It's when the government and the top of the marketplace are bound together.

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I just don't think Biden would try to shimmy the poor and working classes; he's fighting the Republicans tooth and nail, and it's they who do that, who stand for and support the 1 percent. Biden's calling them "semi-fascists," pretty strong words, not coming from a friend, to say the least.

Democrats have a history of leaving in place Republicans in certain key offices: the FBI, the Secretary of Defense (as Obama did with Gates), and Republican Powell seemed to have doing a good job despite being appointed by Trump, so he left him. Democrats do that, I think, to try to be inclusionary; they want this democratic experiment to work. And because no good deed goes unpunished, Powell is showing his gratitude by shimmying the hoi polloi. To be fair, though, Powell is charged with keeping inflation down yet he has only two clumsy tools to do it with. Congress, if it would, could tax the fat cats and bring down inflation, but that ain't happening: Profits are sacred in the business world; to attack them is sacrilegious.

From a broader or historical perspective, you ain't screwing the big dogs; they have too much power and too many ways to duck and cover. They didn't get big by being easy targets.

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Well stated; sad but O so true…

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Yes, Tim should get lost!

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Sep 13, 2022·edited Sep 13, 2022

Whenever a stranger says “In case you hadn’t noticed…” I shut down. Get lost, Tim. Not cool.

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Noted. And I tend to shut down when people from one side act (with obvious blood on it's hands) focus on their perceived political opponents. 'People who live in glass houses' and all that.

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Nice try at mansplainin', Timmy. Now get Lassie to pull you out of the well.

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Get Lost — blocking you

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Anne I don't understand your hostility. What is untrue about Tim said? What is "uncool" about it? If we want to save democracy and the once-treasured American value of equality, we can't do it with our eyes shut. We have to put a lot of pressure on those who are acting against our interests.

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Mary Blaine Campbell —

I am not hostile. Tim attacked me.

No one on this forum has ever disrespected me until yesterday. And now.

Slava Ukraini 🌻

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That is true. Neither Warren nor Sanders would have kept Powell as Chairman, I don't even think Amy Klobuchar would have.

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🗽❤️ Keep the faith. We can do great things if the Senate doesn’t have a protected minority. Vote. And bring all your friends.

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Excellent summary of how all of us who are not members of the donor class are getting screwed. I'm a physician and today I just got news of a 5% pay cut. While the Fed is not an official branch of government, Biden could certainly use the bully pulpit to call out chairman Powell and his "pain" policies, but he rarely if ever speaks out against his real base. And when he does it's only in the interest of political expediency. Can you imagine what we would be hearing from a President Sanders right about now? But no, the neoliberal nightmare continues.

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What an insult , after the heroic job the medical profession has done coping with the pandemic! In view of the shortages in medical personnel, I would think cutting salaries will only make matters worse. What are they thinking?!

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Janet R ; I agree

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Janet R ; I'm glad that Bernie is still a Senator, but he is old enough to be too old for the job of president. There are those who might do what was done to president Kennedy, if Sanders managed to get anywhere near the White House. It will be interesting to see what Biden might do or say about the role of the very rich in the 'inflation' problem. As Dr. Reich has pointed out, the historically high profit margins of the wealthy and the corporations, combined with their very low (or no) taxes paid is the real problem. Bernie never fails to mention the 'obscene wealth' that hampers Democracy by robbing us all. Existing anti trust laws should be enforced, and the trillions in tax giveaways from tRump to billionaires must end. Windfall profits taxes and price controls where applicable would also help. The abortion overreach is a deliberate distraction.

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founding

It appears Congress is in the pockets of corporations

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You think? Of course they are and have been for decades.

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😱

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🎶 🎶

Where have all the profits gone,

All this entire year,

Where have all the profits gone,

Why need we fear?

Where have all the profits gone,

In the accounts o' investors, every one,

When will they ever care,

When will they .... ever....care...

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Hey Michael, I like your words to an old tune. I would love to hear someone sing it to the Fed guys at their meeting, maybe with some more of the verses.

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Hi Ruth,. Thank you. For now there's just the one verse to this lament, which I wrote spontaneously, inspired by the poignancy underlying the hard facts in Prof Reich's post as well as his passion and commitment in getting his message across. Perhaps I will write more later.

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And what's the most agonizing is that it's such ineffective policy. Like bleeding the patient when they aren't getting better.

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Mary Ann, what a great analogy. Bleeding patients who were not improving was the standard practice back in the day. It didn't matter if most of the patients didn't make it, the practitioners' ignorance was so audacious, people believed they must be right, just like the Fed.

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Mary Ann ; good analogy!

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The Fed controls interest rates and the money supply (monetary policy), the legislature (congress) controls taxation (fiscal policy). The irony is while the Democrats would support higher corporate taxes the Republicans will market the lower corporate taxes as a godsend enabling the corporations to stimulate the economy and resume hiring following the Democrats recession. The Dems must get ahead of this resumption of Supply Side economic BS started by Reagan and demonstrate exactly how this engineered recession is designed specifically to hurt the working class, not the corporate and Wall Street class.

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When will conservative mind-set let go of the "trickle-down BS? It happens only in their minds.

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We need trickle-up policies— not trickle-down!

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As long as we have Citizens United, this inequity wiil be the American way of governance—and life or the taking thereof.

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Keep beating that drum. I don’t think drastically rising energy prices are all about the attacks on Ukraine either. At least with lower gas prices we may be able to live in our cars.

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Excellent article - oddly similar stuff is happening in the Uk with Truss administration.

Vast profits by fossil fuel companies - but still no serious windfall tax to pay for the soaring energy cost for the poor. Tax cuts for businesses in stead. Seems that governments of all Color’s are too fearful to challenge the economic order

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Christopher, I sure do wish we could prod the governments to actually see what the rich are doing to all of us and how much better off we would all be if we could curb the wealth held by the few.

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Oh, I think our governments clearly know what's going on......but it serves them best to be complicit.

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I agree ; how could anyone not see it?

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Sadly I think it’s gonna take a seismic mind shift or change in economic thinking to readdress this gaping in balance. When money markets control the world economy national government of all

Color’s are beholden to them. I’m no economist , but I think our complete dependence on markets has gone too far

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Yes it’s just so disgustingly corrupt thr whole thing

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Is Jerome Powell related to Lewis Powell? Maybe that is why he deliberately stays quiet when it comes to corporate profits. America is in trouble because politicians got in bed with the devil, their private campaign contributors, and now it is "Anything for the corporations and elites" because of their constant craving for their cash. Corrupt and pathetic. Where are the PATRIOTS of the U.S.?

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It's nice to have multilple POVs, and you can always be counted on to offer the POV of the workers. Thank you.

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Shaktari, it really is great to have someone with such knowledge as Dr. Reich and the people in this thread to actually care about the POV of working people, the majority of Americans. Too much emphasis is paid to what the rich and powerful want and think. That is not a goodapproach to anything.

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Like those of us on fixed incomes.

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Bob, you need to get back to Washington and show what’s right and what’s not right.

No one makes sense but you!

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So how do we get the Fed or Biden administration to read this?

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