Bernanke to Cut Rates Further, Faster as Inflation Concerns Ebb

Insanity.

Maybe I just don't get it but I just feel this is the worst thing he could be doing. These guys have got to be engineering total economic global destruction. I mean I am sure that is where its heading anyway but this seems like he is jumping out the window head first.

He has chosen inflation -it was that or Market crash, I think. I think he will cut the rates to 0 if he feels like it -just like Japan did. I think he will rather oversee 30% inflation rate rathen than another Black Tuesday -his name would live in infamy if that happened.

Scylla and Charybdis, Rock and the Hard Place...

currency and balance of payment problems. We are headed for a trainwreck in our economy. Have you read about the great inflation in Germany and Austria between WWI and the rise of the NAZIs?

http://www.joelscoins.com/exhibger2.htm

The inflation was triggered by a huge increase in the nation's money supply, caused in part by the heavy demands of the reparations placed upon Germany following its loss in World War I. Soon an inflationary mentality set in. Merchants would raise prices automatically. People would hoard goods, figuring the price would go up, thus causing shortages. The vast quantities of money were issued not only by the German central bank (The Reichsbank), but also by numerous communities, cities, states and companies, only compounded the inflation

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This is a strictly political move intended to stave off recession until the next president takes over. Bush should simply take the fall. That is what a true patriot in his position would do. He is a failure in every other area. He mistakenly hangs on to the belief that he is fooling everyone into thinking that the economy is OK. The American people know that they are not financially OK and are not falling for it.

But maybe it IS on purpose. It's our turn to take a hit, according to the powers that be.

inflation.

More inflation will hurt the worker more.

That quote is from Stephen Roach, head of Asia for U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N):

“We have a market-friendly Fed possibly injecting a lot of liquidity in the system which will set us up for another bubble economy,” said Stephen Roach, head of Asia for U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

“I’m sort of worried that all they did yesterday was to hit the snooze button. (This is) excessive monetary accommodation that just takes us from bubble to bubble to bubble.”

Lawrence Summers, a former U.S. treasury chief, was critical too: “It’s hard to give a high grade (to central banks) for what’s happened in the last six months.”

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I just spent $104 and didn't even buy any meat. He's nuts.

Is he going to start asking Asia to pay us to borrow their money?

I agree, they're just thrashing around at this point. Trying to pass off frenetic activity as a "plan."

bastards are trying to shore up the economy so the republican thieves and conmen can make their getaway in 2009 before Hurricane Repuke Shitstorm hits the country.

"ebbing inflation concerns" is UTTER BULLSHIT. Go to the damned grocery store and tell me inflation concerns are ebbing.

Ferfucksake.

to me eventually rates will have to rise in order for anyone to be willing to take on the risk of a sliding dollar.

They're just buying themselves time. When the Dem wins in November, they will hike rates back up again to fight inflation and flush out the crap from the housing bubble collapse. Thus, when the stock market crashes and the economy tanks, the people will blame Hillary for the mess. Bush and the Republicans will be a distant memory.

And why not,,, printing money is soo cheap.

Scoundrels....

I really don't see it.

You're probably right.

Why aren't our Democratic candidates talking about that?

I have no more faith in this "experiment" we call democracy.....

or: borrowing from our grandkids to finance today's fun.

A "stimulus package" to create growth assumes that growth will occur. If growth is merely the mask of the collapsing dollar (we all have so many more buckets of money than we used to!) while the standard of living continues to erode, it is all one more sideshow in the long decline.

I am biased toward viewing the official US economy as a poorly managed fiction, while global forces allow us a decreasing share of the world's constrained resources. Perhaps that is as it should be. A sensible person would then limits his or her expectations, spend less, expect less, enjoying the wealth and ease we have in any case against a historical standard. Why should we be discouraged from realism and good sense by government?

Going bankrupt: The US's greatest threat
By Chalmers Johnson

The military adventurers of the George W Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups of men thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room", the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neo-conservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

As a result, going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space against unknown adversaries.

Instead, the Bush administration puts off these costs for future generations to pay - or repudiate. This utter fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through many manipulative financial schemes (such as causing poorer countries to lend us unprecedented sums of money), but the time of reckoning is fast approaching.

There are three broad aspects to our debt crisis. First, in the current fiscal year (2008) we are spending insane amounts of money on "defense" projects that bear no relationship to the national security of the United States. Simultaneously, we are keeping the income tax burdens on the richest segments of the American population at strikingly low levels.

Second, we continue to believe that we can compensate for the accelerating erosion of our manufacturing base and our loss of jobs to foreign countries through massive military expenditures - so-called "military Keynesianism", which I discuss in detail in my book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. By military Keynesianism, I mean the mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true.

Third, in our devotion to militarism (despite our limited resources), we are failing to invest in our social infrastructure and other requirements for the long-term health of our country. These are what economists call "opportunity costs", things not done because we spent our money on something else. Our public education system has deteriorated alarmingly. We have failed to provide health care to all our citizens and neglected our responsibilities as the world's number one polluter. Most important, we have lost our competitiveness as a manufacturer for civilian needs - an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing. Let me discuss each of these.

More:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA24Ak04.html