Neither loose monetary policy, nor big-spending fiscal policy can grow an economy. All that these policies can do is to redistribute a given pool of real savings from wealth generators toward non-wealth generating activities.
The eurozone economy is slowing down. The solution isn't more fiscal and monetary stimuli.
The US dollar continues to enjoy the confidence of markets, governments, and central banks. But faith in the US dollar is weakening, and many are trying to help the process along.
The Fed would have us believe that it has am impressive record of success in preventing recessions and improving the economy. The actual historical record suggests otherwise.
Since real savings enable the production of capital goods, obviously real savings are at the heart of the economic growth that raises people's living standards.
In the blurry world of conflicting economic indicators and forecasts and policy surprises, activist policymakers at the Fed do not know exactly what the “right” monetary policy is today. Neither do their activist critics.
People do not save and accumulate capital because there is interest. Interest is neither the impetus to saving nor the reward or the compensation granted for abstaining from immediate consumption. It is the ratio in the mutual valuation of present goods as against future goods.
Real GDP does not measure the real strength of an economy, but reflects monetary turnover. Thus, the more money is pumped, the stronger the economy appears to be.
100-year bonds push government debt onto future taxpayers who haven't even been born yet. And they also show the government has no intention of actually paying its debts.
The tactics used by central banks don't just create bubbles or drive up prices. They actively destroy value and act as a tax on real producers in the economy.
