► Show Top 10 Hot Links

Posts Tagged ‘Ben Bernanke’

The Obama Boom: Inflation pushes up Consumer Spending

by Phantom Ace ( 2 Comments › )
Filed under Headlines at March 28th, 2011 - 8:56 pm

Anyone who’s gone to the supermarket and the gas station knows that inflation is up. Wages are stagnant and this our real disposable incomes are going down. Ben Bernanke did QE2 to create inflation and get out of a deflationary cycle we were falling into. The problem is that by fueling inflation, he might knock the country back into recession and destroy people’s savings. Last month, inflation cut into consumer spending. In fact, people had to dip in their savings.

U.S. consumer spending rose for an eighth straight month in February as households tapped savings to cover higher food and energy prices.

Spending rose 0.7 percent in February after a 0.3 percent increase in January, and inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since June 2009, the Commerce Department said on Monday.

Adjusted for inflation, spending was up a far smaller 0.3 percent last month after being flat the prior month.

“The data provide yet more evidence that higher prices are denting economic growth,” said Paul Dales, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

The increasing costs is putting a damper on people’s spending. As prices rise and wages don’t go up our living standards decline.

This is the Obama Boom!

Weaker Dollar will not help the US economy

by Phantom Ace ( 207 Comments › )
Filed under Blogwars, Democratic Party, Economy, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Progressives, Socialism at November 16th, 2010 - 2:00 pm

Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, has begun implementing his QE2 to combat deflation. This is de facto devaluation of the dollar and its goal is to create some inflation so people will spend. Another side effect of devaluation is making American goods cheaper for exports. The thinking is that cheaper American goods will lead to demand for these products and thus create jobs. The problem is this will not work in today’s environment as the US doesn’t produce much for export anymore. The Economic model pushed by both parties was to have Americans as consumers, not producers. The truth is this QE2 gamble will not kick start the US economy.

A weakening currency traditionally helps a country raise its exports and create more jobs for its workers. But the declining value of the dollar may not help the United States increase economic growth as much as it might have in the past.

Though a weakened dollar would help exports to some degree, business executives and economists said that because of the ways American multinational companies operated, it was uncertain whether it would cause much of an increase in hiring.

[…]

Even when a company enjoys a relative surge in foreign sales, it won’t necessarily lead to a hiring spree. That is because the largest proportion of American exports are still manufactured goods, which are no longer so labor-intensive.

And many of the companies that still manufacture in this country are businesses that have not gone offshore because they are too small to justify setting up overseas operations. A weak dollar can help their businesses, but it may not prompt a wave of hiring.

Read the rest: Weaker Dollar Seen as Unlikely to Cure Joblessness

At this point the Federal reserve and the Obama administration are using gimmicks to get the economy going. The only solution is to massively reform our tax code and regulatory system to make America attractive to foreign capital. This is what will create jobs, not a currency devaluation. Many nations around the world have tried currency devaluations and the result was economic stagnation. Until hard choices are made in regards to our fiscal situation, America will continue to be the sick man of the global economy.