Procrastination

Larry, would you please take out the trash? Sure honey, I will as soon as I’m finished writing this blog.

I noticed the trash is still there and the truck will be here in the morning. No probs babe, I will get to it as soon as I finish my nachos.

It is almost bed time and guess what – trash still here. I know, it ain’t no big thing. As soon as Two Broke Girls is over I will jump on it.

It is now 6 am and the truck will be here any minute. Groovy, as soon as I stop watching Two Broke Girls reruns, I will jump on it.

Honey, the truck just left. Well, there wasn’t that much trash anyway, I promise to get on it next week.

Sound familiar? I am referring to the Fed. When will Ms Yellen and her gang of procrastinators realize that you cannot postpone the inevitable forever? Yup, they did it again. This time the excuse is Brexit. Or was it a one-month earth-shaking slowdown in employment? Or was it George Bush?

Come on Fed-dudes. Can you for a minute distance yourself from your super-hero selves and get real? Think about what you are doing to exacerbate serious and harmful imbalances in this country.

Imbalances? Um ask anyone who wants to save for the future how they are doing? They either get a negative interest rate or they have to take ridiculous risk just to be a prudent saver. Seriously, do you not see the harm in this? And then there is the promotion of all sorts of borrowing  at historically miniscule costs. Didn’t we just have a financial crisis? And you want to promote more risky borrowing? Wow. With a Fed like this who needs corrupt bankers?

Inflation? I know the Fed has been quite generous with money and yet no inflation. But do we really expect that to last forever? Are there not signs that wage growth is picking up? Will inflation never return as the Fed continues to float the US economy?

And for what? Hi honey I just decided to do the healthy thing and lose some unwanted blubber. I plan to lose a quarter of a pound a month this year. Nice going dear. Why would the markets go wild after such an announcement? The Fed is not jacking rates to 22.0%. They are talking about 0.25%. All together now… 0.25%... 0.25%...0.25%. Try it to the tune of Gloria. Chords – E, D, A.

And then there is the question of when. If not now, when? I know you might have forgotten that there is an election coming but if they are not going to raise the rate today, then surely raising it in September is much too close to the election. And don’t forget the opening of football season. No way Nolan. You cannot raise rates right before IU plays the FIU Golden Panthers on September 1. And then there is Groundhog Day. 

This last idiotic non-move by the Fed proves that our leadership needs to be replaced. Some of my reactionary friends want to replace the Fed with a gold standard. But gold standards notoriously fail when governments fail. So long as we have a government that has abdicated its financial role we are stuck with a miserable but finely coordinated policy of financial neglect. Way to go government. Give me a G! Give me an O. Nevermind. 

This gets me back to my wail of last week. We don’t need gold. We need some common sense. We need a government that has watched one bankruptcy after the next. Aren’t you glad you don’t hold Puerto Rican bonds? Why does not our government learn? Both the government and the Fed are putting us in a situation of financial jeopardy. Maybe they want another crisis? Then they can once again don their super hero costumes, point the finger of blame at banks and greedy capitalists, and continue on their confident but destructive ways.

Moderates, it is time to reclaim our country. (If you don’t know what that means, see my post from last week or send money.)