The Great Recession Blog

We’ve now hit that critical juncture when price inflation is picking up momentum quickly. So, it is time I reveal the many areas were high inflation is starting to show up and as well as demonstrate the fuel source that will drive it up even more in the near future.

As I noted in an earlier Patron Post we are entering the first period since I began writing this blog years ago when I am actually concerned about inflation blowing up. In my last article about all the variables creating insanity in the housing market, I noted that inflation (or expectation of it) has started […]

Once upon a time, US money supply was increased in keeping with gross domestic product … and then something went wrong: Terribly wrong. Money started growing exponentially, but GDP didn’t see the slightest bump in growth. Nevertheless, the central bank became unable to stop itself from making more and more of the stuff, though it […]

I’ve said this before, but there is a strong reason why it has been clear we would NOT have price inflation during all the Federal Reserve’s money creation after the Great Recession and why we very well could have it now. I think this deserves a quick summary because even financial writers don’t get it.

We live in a time of intense scrutiny and declining trust in public institutions around the world. At the Fed, we are committed to working hard to build and sustain the public’s trust. The Fed has special responsibilities in this regard. Our monetary policy independence allows us to serve the public without regard to short-term […]

A funny thing happened on the way to Wall Street. News about the economy was as dark as the ink it was printed with, and yet stock markets vaulted upward. The Federal Reserve had been teasing the stock markets with round three of quantitative easing (QE3), and the noses of the market bulls now flared […]

In making 2012 predictions, I cannot do worse than Harold Camping did in 2011. He missed the end of the world entirely — THREE times — yet he still kept his followers and collects millions! He may head a non-prophet organization, but he sure knows how to turn a profit. Let me start by predicting […]

In the statement below, CNBC (Reuters actually) tells us in one breath that we’re worse off than we’ve been in 28 years, but in the next breath, they tell us the recession ended two years ago. How does it not occur to them to ask, “If the Great Recession ended two years ago, why are […]

Decade after decade, U.S. budget cuts have attempted to balance the budget in years far ahead. It’s become the American way. Congress always puts the austerity part of the program out where someone other than us can feel the pain for us or where some other congress can take the heat. We’re noble that way. […]

First, an expanding government lives on what taxpayers give it. Then, it lives on what taxpayers give it, plus what it can borrow from them. Then, it spends everything that it can squeeze out of taxpayers, plus what it plans to squeeze out of generations of taxpayers who haven’t been born yet. Finally, when it […]

Real U.S inflation is much higher than reported because the government has changed its calculus. Real U.S. inflation in the Great Recession would match the days of the Carter Administration at about 11% if inflation were calculated the way it was back then. The change in U.S. government’s calculus means the Fed’s quantitative easing could […]

 The pile-up of debt we have created by pushing the economic crisis further down the road is far worse than “kicking the can down the road.” It is more like pushing a snow straight down the road, instead off to the side, so that it becomes a mountain (of debt in this case) that you […]