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The Limits Of Monetary Policy In Addressing Today's Economic Crisis

Via Atrios (not sure what he thinks about this), the WSJ writes about the Fed's ability to lower interest rates has been rather ineffective at spurring demand:

The U.S. recovery is hobbled by an economic divide that separates Americans not by income or wealth but by their access to credit. The housing bust left behind millions of people with credit records damaged by plunging home prices, lost jobs, past overspending or bad luck. Many are now walled off from the low interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve to spur the economy and remedy the aftereffects of the borrowing boom.

Shrunken access among credit have-nots is triggering more than personal plight. It has weakened the influence of the Fed—one of the best hopes for spurring stronger economic growth—and raised doubts within the central bank about whether it is doing much to reduce unemployment.

The credit divide factors into their thinking. Fed officials have been frustrated in the past year that low interest rate policies haven't reached enough Americans to spur stronger growth, the way economics textbooks say low rates should.

It never factored into the VSP's thinking about the housing and homeowner crisis. This is the failure of Tim Geithner especially, who blocked real help for homeowners while choosing to give free money to the banks.

The banks are fine now. The country is not.

Geithner remains a corrupt incompetent who, if Obama loses, will be the cause of the loss.

Speaking for me only

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  • Display: Sort:
    If Obama's relected... (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by redwolf on Tue Jun 19, 2012 at 09:53:02 AM EST
    Won't we continue to see more of the same corruption we saw under Geithner?  What's the point of reelecting Obama when he's clearly owned by the banks?

    Indeed (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by kmblue on Tue Jun 19, 2012 at 10:01:24 AM EST
    IMO, Obama needs a clear and simple message to get people to vote for him.  The last time he did was in 2008--"Hope and Change."

    The Supreme Court argument is not enough.  If you read the New Yorker article about how his staff sees the campaign, you'll be horrified.

    I think Obama will be shocked if he loses.  And at this point, I'll be shocked if he wins.

    Parent

    Obama lost my vote a long time ago (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by COgator95 on Tue Jun 19, 2012 at 10:31:57 AM EST
    for way to many reasons to list here.

    Maybe Obama's clear and simple message should be something like this...

    "I violate sovereignty of other nations on a whim and kill a lot of innocent civilians ahem.. I mean militants and that keeps America safe!"

    Also, if Obama is re-elected he will nominate justices that are just slightly to the left of Alito and Roberts. Which means they will be conservative just not bat shit crazy conservative.

    Parent

    Funny (none / 0) (#12)
    by ScottW714 on Tue Jun 19, 2012 at 11:10:35 AM EST
    "I violate sovereignty of other nations on a whim and kill a lot of innocent civilians ahem.. I mean militants and that keeps America safe!"

    Have you seen his list of accomplishments JB posted, like half are about killing people.

    Parent

    Because (none / 0) (#18)
    by cal1942 on Tue Jun 19, 2012 at 05:58:55 PM EST
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