Inflation

Jul 252012
 

The WSJ buries the lead in this story about the Fed:

Fed Sees Action if Growth Doesn’t Pick Up Soon – WSJ.com.

You have to go almost to page 2 to find out what action the Fed is talking about.   Up until the last part of paragraph 4 it keeps us in suspense, speaking vaguely of “taking new steps” and “moving” and “taking actions.”

Only then do you learn that printing money to buy more securities is at the top of the list, followed by lowering interest rates even closer toward zero than they already are.

It makes one wonder if it’s not so much that the WSJ doesn’t have editors who can make sure that the main point comes first in the article, but that the Fed is not very proud of what it’s about to do.

 

Jul 102012
 

The Fed’s view is that by raising interest rates enough, it can stop any inflation. True, but not entirely relevant. Will the politicians, the public, business and labor accept the necessary level of interest rates?

via Allan Meltzer: What’s Wrong With the Federal Reserve? – WSJ.com.

What it can do and what it will do: two different things.