Since yesterdays video about how the Fed makes (literally) money I’ve seen a few questions. On top of recent discussion of how and why we are not seeing inflation…thought I’d bring this recent piece from Barry Ritholtz to the tank. In 2010 Reminder: QE = Currency Debasement and Inflation he points to the long and (then) distinguished list of “experts” who wrote to the Fed Charman claiming how Quantative Easing (QE) would debase the dollar, cause inflation, etc. It is interesting to me how many people I know, smart people to be sure, who believed this…some still do in spite of history proving them wrong.
QE has continued, pumped money into a weak economy creating jobs and keeping the system solvent. Like I said before it is not the best plan, that would have been direct government stimulous out of Congress. But some truely smart people credit QE with keeping us out of a full blown depression in spite of congressional efforts to allow, perhaps even make the economy worse. Yet as Ritholtz makes the point, none of the signitories on this letter, nor the others claiming inflation and currency debasement, have had no concequences in spite of being so wrong for so long. And here’s Krugman’s take, expectedly much more pointed, What to do When You’re Wrong.
Reader comments are interesting. One in particular points to the various signitures ”A Who’s who of the right wing, with a strong whiff of dead Rand…”
Yup, and they are just not learning.
