>>>Stocks saw through it all. Weak numbers again, back to 2010 levels, but not weak enough for the Fed to act.<<<
I have a huge problem with articles written like this one. For the first 7 paragraphs, the author berates the FED and the actions taken by them, then sums it all up by saying the FED isn't acting....
You simply can't have it both ways. I know this goes contrary to most thinking, and certainly to main stream thinking, but the FED needs to get out of it's own way and TELEGRAPH that interest rates are going to rise and rise soon. That we are going to find our way to back to a more "normal" time.
We have spent enough time penalizing every person who ever "played the game right" here in the USA. Enough already. Raise rates. Let those who have played right and SAVED money, get a fair and decent return on that same money. Stop penalizing every person in retirement, every person with savings, everyone who "played the game right". Stop acting like the USA is Japan in the 90s. It isn't the same. We have done enough with low rates. We have lived through "the bottoming of the housing market".
Raising rates won't be a quick fix. It will cause many short term problems. But if the only focus is on the short term, we will NEVER, EVER get out of the current downturn.
Just my opinion.
I hope people realize that the bond bubble we are in is going to be a bust one of these days. Not tomorrow but soon. Every person, especially retired people, should be aware that one of these days very soon, bond funds are going to be THE WORST place to have your money. Unfortunately, most people WON'T be aware that they have been slowly forced into another bad place to keep their money for the long term. During the early part of the last decade, it was buy real estate. Now it's stay in bonds. Very soon the day will come when that will be the wrong answer, regardless of the returns from the past decade.
One last note/rant,
Like so many, I was totally IRATE at Greenspan when he slammed on the breaks in May of 2000. The last 50 bp hike was totally unnecessary and derailed almost every market....bonds, stocks, currencies, etc... Greenspan's legacy was an "ivory tower" application of theory that came back to bite us all in the--not so proverbial--ass. We still haven't recovered. Say what you will about CDS and the like, it was the idiocy of the FED that led us down the garden path on our way to "just one (last) more bubble"---Housing. |
