07.21.08
A. Dumb B. Stupid C. Ignorant D. All the above – VOTB
Stuart Eizenstat (former Democrat Presidential Assistant) said “Washington doesn’t understand interest rates and Wall Street doesn’t understand Washington”. When was the last time you heard politicians debate at length the monetary policy of the U.S.? Why has congress given up its rights over monetary policy? The answers are in the multiply choice title above. Bottom line, they are clueless. VOTB
Several politicians have tried to bring monetary policy into the election debates, but it falls on A, B, C, or D ears. Ron Paul, Stan Jones and a few others have been and are screaming from the rafters that the U.S. monetary policy as set forth by the Federal Reserve (Fed) sucks. William McChasney Martin Jr. (former fed chairman) in the book Secrets of the Temple explains what the Fed does simply by saying that “The Federal Reserve’s job is to take away the punch bowl just when the party gets going”.
The Fed and the President’s Working group on Financial Markets toil behind a veil of secrecy. Ask a politician to explain how interest rates are set. Ask them what the President’s Working group on Financial Markets does and why. The pause before those answers speaks volumes. These same political hacks would be floored to find out that consumer prices had been stable from 1800 until the birth of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Since then the U.S. has had constant inflation, depression, and boom and bust cycles.
Lee Hamilton once said “Free markets work better when information is available”. Assuming that’s a reasonable observation, why did the Federal Reserve Board stop publishing the M3 monetary aggregate statics in 2006? Bet your buddy even money that your local politician doesn’t know what the M3 statics are. It might be ok for us citizens not to know, but people we trust to run the country have NO excuse for not knowing.
A monetary aggregate is the total amounts of money held by the nonbank public. It monitors growth of a money supply. Its numbers are important in controlling inflation. It is measured in Ms. In the U.S. M0 is the narrowest measurement and M3 is the broadest. The following website does a good job of explaining it further.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply
The M3 monetary aggregate simply tells citizens how fast the printing presses are running making paper money backed by thin air. Why would the Fed stop publishing these stats? Maybe doing away with M3 eliminates proof that we’re financing our own debt through private hedge funds. We know the dollar’s value is shrinking. And when the value of the U.S. dollar goes down, the national tax burden goes up. That’s right, inflation is becoming a huge national tax burden.
So what’s the point? Politicians make laws saying teachers, doctors, lawyers, CPAs, technicians of all sorts, etc must take tests before they can practice and regularly get continuing education credits after beginning to practice. Ask them why and they’ll say to protect the public. Politicians should have to take a national test for the same reasons. Politicians must be made to take and pass a national test (prepared by high school teachers) before they can run for all public offices. Then they also have to get continuing education credits just like all the other professionals.
The test must include (but not necessarily limited to) the following sections: economics (micro and macro), history (U.S. and World), ethics, physical science (emphasizing energy production and ecology), cultural diversity and contemporary/community health. Once educated, maybe they wouldn’t act like children. (Bill Clinton was quoted as saying Obama will have to “kiss his ass” to get his support.) We definitely need a better class of politician.
Maybe if they had ongoing general education requirements, they would act like adults and not say dumb things. And maybe they would even work to permanently fix problems. All they are doing is creating problems (the Fed in 1913, oil in the 70s and now, housing, etc.) and then arguing how to fix them.
Dumb things from Pelosi, Feinstein and Boxer: Stop exporting oil from the U.S. (The U.S. exports hardly any oil.) Or dumber: Two men are causing a drastic rise in oil prices – Bush and Chaney. When asked how to bring down oil prices (now) – answer explore alternatives. A. B. C. or D.
McCain claims he doesn’t know much about economics. He also pledged to fight for amnesty “yesterday, today and tomorrow.” A. B. C. or D.
Obama’s classic: “I’ve traveled to 57 states. I have one to go. My staff won’t let my go to Alaska or Hawaii.” A. B. C. or D.
“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system for, if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” – Henry Ford quoted from the book “The Federal Reserve Hoax” (1962). Maybe, if our politicians understood it, we could have a stable (pre-Fed) economy.
U.S. citizens are tired of being represented by Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest. Fix it now. Vote Out The (A. B. C. or D.) Bums: every incumbent, every election.
