In a rather eerie
echo of my previous post there are some very telling reactions to Fed
Chairman, Ben Bernanke's recent appearance before the Senate Banking
committee as reported in the New York Times. The issue, of
course, is government stimulation of an economy in the doldrums—to
do or not to do it.
Mr.
Bernanke, playing it coy, talks of a looming “fiscal cliff”. “The
combination of higher taxes and cuts in federal spending set for the
end of the year 'would probably knock the economy back into a
recession and cost a lot of jobs',” Mr. Bernanke said. This, it
seems to me, is a rather off handed way of saying, as Richard Duncan
suggests, that the economy is, in fact, on government life support.
As you
would expect the senators reactions are purely party line. One
example each:
Republicans
pressed Mr. Bernanke to forswear additional action, warning that new
measures would eventually lead to higher inflation and suggesting
that the Fed’s policies were allowing Congress to delay a reckoning
with the federal debt. Mr. Bernanke rejected both arguments.
Democrats
put countervailing pressure on Mr. Bernanke to agree that he should
do more. “I’m afraid the Fed is the only game in town,”
said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. “And I would
urge you to take whatever actions you think would be appropriate.”
Does that sound like government life support or what?
2 comments:
Joe,
I find it interesting that you are, often, commenting on American politics.
Is it because you feel kin to it, being from this country, originally, or is it because the United States' issues affect the world?
Are you just as interested in the Japanese economy and follow it as intently?
Curious,
R
Probably both. You can take the American out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the American. Of course, US issues do affect the world, so they affects me wherever I am. Certainly, economic issues are inter-connected so they affect us all as well. Japan is mostly run by its large bureaucracy no matter who is the PM or what party controls the Diet. It mostly lumbers along and Japanese politics are, by and large, boring. Except, of course, when a Fukushima happens. Other than that it's just fun observing global events and trying to figure what's really going on. I guess its the globetrotter and historian in me. Besides, it's the only game in town. ;-)
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