[quote=FlyerInHi]CAr, deflation is Greece and Spain. The evidence is there, what else do you need? Absent monetary policy, the alternative is internal deflation to regain competitiveness.[/quote]
I’m not opposed to the govt/fed intervening in productive ways, just that what they’ve been doing will end up causing more damage over the long run, yet again.
Back before the downturn, I was writing letters to a number of politicians and regulators warning about the downturn and what should be done in order to mitigate the effects: infrastructure investment, R&D in the energy and healthcare sectors, and (the smallest component) unemployment assistance for those who were most negatively affected by the downturn. I also advocated for pushing the foreclosures though as quickly as possible, with a focus on getting those homes into the hands of owner-occupiers. And NO bailouts for either the borrowers or lenders who had caused the bubble in the first place.
We could have bottomed by 2012 if these policies were enacted. As it stands, we won’t be bottoming out until the mid-2020s, IMO. We still have a couple of years where we can pretend some more, but I think that 2016-2017 will see hard times (this has always been my timeline based on what would happen if there were bailouts of all the wrong people).
Putting money into the hands of speculators and the wealthy does not improve the economy, and it does nothing to make the system more secure — quite the opposite.
