{"id":13705,"date":"2013-05-02T10:29:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T14:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=13705"},"modified":"2013-05-02T10:31:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T14:31:34","slug":"feds-language-shift-signals-washington-sequester-harming-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/05\/02\/feds-language-shift-signals-washington-sequester-harming-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed\u2019s language shift signals Washington, sequester harming growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

McClatchy<\/em> News has the article Fed\u2019s language shift signals Washington, sequester harming growth<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousehold spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth,\u201d the Federal Open Market Committee\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

That was almost identical to the March wording, except that back then the Fed said that \u201cfiscal policy has become somewhat more constrictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

It means that by the Fed\u2019s read of the latest economic indicators, actions taken by Congress and White House \u2013 or not taken in the case of failing to reach a budget compromise and allowing automatic cuts to begin on March 1 \u2013 are harming the economy and the Fed\u2019s efforts to jumpstart it.
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\n\u201cLike a patient who has been administered too many antibiotics, the economy is less and less responsive to the Fed\u2019s continued monetary stimulus,\u201d Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, head of the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement. \u201cAmerica is nearly five years into the Fed\u2019s historically unprecedented interventionist policies and there is very little gain to show for it.\u201d He added: \u201c12 million Americans remain unemployed \u2013 a number roughly equal to the entire population of Ohio.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is another great example of how a Republican tries to shift the blame from deliberate Republican policies to an agency that is doing its best to repair the damage the Republicans are doing.<\/p>\n

As I have posted extensively on this blog, trying to resolve a recession bordering on depression with only the monetary policy tools at the disposal of the Fed is like trying to push on a string.\u00a0 Pulling on a string is much more effective, and that would be robust, stimulative fiscal policy.<\/p>\n

The Republicans put every roadblock possible in the path of stimulative fiscal policy, leaving the Fed to come to the rescue with the only tools that it has.\u00a0 These tools are not nearly as effective as the tools at the disposal of Congress, but if Congress will only behave in a negative way, what is the Fed supposed to do?<\/p>\n

If the Fed did not try to counteract what Congress is doing, then this economy would be in much deeper trouble than it is now.\u00a0 For political purposes, the Republicans are harping on the “problem” of an increasing deficit, when in fact, an increasing deficit is the most effective tool to counter a recession, short of\u00a0 correcting the mal-distribution of income and wealth in this country.\u00a0 The Republicans are even firmer in not allowing a fix to the mal-distribution problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McClatchy News has the article Fed\u2019s language shift signals Washington, sequester harming growth. \u201cHousehold spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth,\u201d the Federal Open Market Committee\u2019s statement said. That was almost identical to the March wording, except that back then the Fed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13707,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13705\/revisions\/13707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}