freejulian85

> Mr Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the environment that he exposed himself to

Fuck you.

The dishonesty and irresponsibility of the fed is going to end in disaster - disaster, in this case, being destruction of the currency.

I think everyone knows someone who bought bitcoin in 2017. Hardly a single person.

Same tricks used by governments when reporting inflation!

Cute, but the actual science suggests otherwise: http://ine.uaf.edu/wtc7

At one point does policy targeting a statistical measurement render that statistic useless? I’m looking at you, CPI.

You’re clearly biased when you claim without evidence that the primary purpose of bitcoin is speculation.

Not really.

All they really need to thwart is the fed’s free money policies and banks ability to give people mortgages at 50% DTI and 1% down.

That's not how it works. There's always going to be someone willing to work in his sleep, plus 1 more hour of conscious time relative to the next guy.

Sorry, my comment must not conform to the hackernews groupthink. If you think some vaccines don’t have significant side effects, you’re also not very smart (as so many comments are stating anti vacciners are).

The government can’t even protect us from a known carcinogen - RoundUp. And we’re suppose to just trust them when it comes to vaccines and their side effects? Most anti-vaccine people I know don’t doubt it protects from a specific virus. They question the side effects and secondary impacts vaccines can cause to the body. Just like there’s no doubt that RoundUp is an effective pesticide — but that’s not the issue, is it?

And WeWork is worth 40B according to the big banks.

The improvement in Chicago is due to people fleeing government subsidized suburbia.

Are you kidding me?! Here in Chicago we have enormous financial problems and every year that goes by brings us further away from even attempting to fix those problems. The streets are falling apart, crimes go unsolved, pollution goes unpunished. The candidates for mayor are always first chosen by the elite, then put on stage for the public to select. It’s a joke.

If anything, it’s even easier for the powerful elite to control local governments. Look at all the polluted water flowing through lead pipes across the country — what’s happening about that again? Excuse me, time to print some money and give it to the banks in another nightly “repo operation”.

Perhaps you can start by naming some progress that has been made? I see very little.

At some point people need to wake up and realize they actually have very little control over what the government is doing.

How long have we been talking about fixing healthcare? 20 years now? Nothing changes. And Obamacare was not a fix, just a way to shut up the population.

How long have we been demanding an end to endless wars?

How long have we been demanding actual action on climate change?

What happened when crimes of the government are exposed by Assange and Snowden? We punish the whistleblowers!

What was the end result of the Panama papers? Nothing.

What about the elite being engaged in pedophilia on a massive scale? What’s that, Epstein committed suicide and the prison staff won’t cooperate in an investigation? Carry on fine citizen, nothing to see here.

None of these things will change because the elite are enjoying the status quo. Now proceed fighting amongst yourselves over <insert social wedge issue here>.

Per wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing):

Quantitative easing (QE), also known as large-scale asset purchases, is a monetary policy whereby a central bank buys predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets in order to inject liquidity directly into the economy.

The fed is buying treasuries and MBS's on a nightly and ongoing basis from the banks to the tune of $100B. Is that not large scale? Are those not assets? Is this not injecting liquidity into the economy?

Hell, you can actually see the increasing fed balance sheet from their own data! https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL

> BoA and Chase can attract sufficient deposits without offering 2.0% on savings

Ummm, the fact that the fed is printing money for the banks seems to indicate otherwise?

> Because banks aren't around to make the customers money, they are there to give the shareholders dividends.

Fine, but that doesn't entitle them to free money from the Fed.

We don't know what interest rates would be if the fed wasn't promising free money to the big banks. My credit union can offer 2.0%, why can't Bank of America or Chase or Wells Fargo? This is no different from the LIBOR manipulation that happened a few years ago. Back then, the media was quick to point out how the LIBOR interest rate impacted everyone from pensioners to savers.

I'm sure the Fed asked this article be written. They're buying assets from banks and giving them money. What is your definition of QE?

It’s essentially QE4. Fed’s balance sheet is increasing (even if for a short duration). Make no mistake - this results in lower return on cash for savers. At a time when big banks call 0.05% “high yield”, this is the last thing we need. If banks are short on reserves they should be increasing interest rates to attract new deposits and maybe selling some of those foreclosed homes they’ve been holding onto for an eternity.

The banks have completely failed as a business and the fed is enabling their incompetence. How many stories do we need of money laundering, market manipulation, fraud, until we say enough?

The best part of all this? We don't even get to know the real reason there's a liquidity crisis. Obviously the "it's investors buying treasuries and corporations paying taxes!" explanation was BS.

Why should a country which can’t control its population growth receive more resources than one that can?

I’m well aware what per capita means. China has 10x the people as Japan. Resources are finite and the earth is already burdened trying to sustain 8 billion people. China wants to improve their per capita gdp? They should reduce their population. It’s not reasonable to assume 1.4 billion people should have the same standard of living as a country which kept their population reasonable.

China’s population is 4x that of the USA. It makes complete sense that their per capita gdp is therefore less. It should remain that way.

People who support pro inflation monetary policy think they know more than those of us who still value the Austrian school of economics. They treat Keynes as settled fact.

The fed has said that they use monetary policy to help “labor adjust to market forces.” This is what inflation does. It weakens the buying power of wage earners. Do it slowly enough and they won’t notice it happening. Our ancestors who fought in the labor movement for significant concessions from the capitalist class must be rolling in their grave at the state of the proletariat today. Promoting globalization while not also requiring counties we trade with have equivalent labor laws is just insane, yet people seem to love the idea of globalization and inflation. All I can do is shake my head.

> The majority of people already own houses and have mortgages.

The majority of boomers maybe own houses. Exclude them and your claim isn’t even close to true.

Regardless, this entire situation is a huge moral hazard. I think the majority of us wouldn’t approve of the fed deciding winners and losers.

This is no different than the manipulation that happened with LIBOR. Back then the media was quick to point out that the manipulated interest rate impacted pension funds, mortgages, and everything in between.

The fed is doing the same thing by stepping in and manipulating the overnight rate. Without the fed doing this, banks would have to plan ahead and make sure they have sufficient liquidity. This means maybe offering better interest rates to earn customer deposits.

With the major banks still calling 0.05% “high yield”, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the fed to continue to enable their incompetence. Furthermore, the banks hold a significant inventory of foreclosed homes on their books. They’ve been sitting on them for years. It’s time they sell that resource to people who need them.