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Germany Was Right When It Called Our Financial Policy "Clueless"
Palisades Hudson ^ | Nov. 13, 2010 | Larry M. Elkin

Posted on 11/14/2010 7:55:15 AM PST by george76

It’s never a good thing when another country calls your financial policy clueless. It’s particularly bad if that other country is one of the world’s leading economies, and if it also happens to be right.

“With all due respect, U.S. policy is clueless,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said recently, referring to the Federal Reserve’s decision to throw $600 billion at our sluggish economy.

The Fed can create as much money as it likes, but the U.S. economy is presently unable to productively put that money to work. By setting near-zero interest rates, the Fed has established that money in this country has no real value. We give it to the banks for nothing, and the banks lend it back to the deficit-ridden U.S. Treasury for almost nothing. The result is a guaranteed profit for the banks, but no incentive to lend cash to creative entrepreneurs or expanding businesses.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 11/14/2010 7:55:19 AM PST by george76
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To: george76
“With all due respect, U.S. policy is clueless,”

That is, with zero respect, because zero respect is due. Respect is earned. Money that is printed isn't earned. Policies that print money aren't respectable.

2 posted on 11/14/2010 7:59:24 AM PST by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: george76

It’s like a professional building contractor hanging a 200-pound chandelier from the ceiling using drywall anchors.


3 posted on 11/14/2010 8:00:16 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

It’s like baking bread using sawdust instead of flour.


4 posted on 11/14/2010 8:03:22 AM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: george76
South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan warned that “Developing countries, including South Africa, would bear the brunt of the U.S. decision to open its flood gates without due consideration of the consequences for other nations.” Those consequences will include asset bubbles, inflation and painful currency gyrations.

Not only that, but it will cause political instability that will lead to war.

5 posted on 11/14/2010 8:03:54 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: george76
I just had to bares tell me it was the bernank's fault.
:)
6 posted on 11/14/2010 8:08:25 AM PST by allmost
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To: Farmer Dean

Wasn’t that tried in the 70’s and called “diet bread”? IIRC, I had a HS teacher that spoke about that in health class.


7 posted on 11/14/2010 8:10:56 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Massachusetts: like sh*t, it happens.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

“It’s like a professional building contractor hanging a 200-pound chandelier from the ceiling using drywall anchors.”

Is this something you know from experience?


8 posted on 11/14/2010 8:11:06 AM PST by dljordan ("His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him")
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To: GOPsterinMA

I think that you are right.At least you got enough fiber in your diet if you ate that.


9 posted on 11/14/2010 8:13:18 AM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: coloradan

“Policies that print money aren’t respectable.”

It seems that Germany has learned from it’s historical
mistakes. Let’s hope that we do. Nah, The “0” Will show
them. Next we invade Poland.


10 posted on 11/14/2010 8:15:53 AM PST by CrazyIvan (What's "My Struggle" in Kenyan?)
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To: Farmer Dean

Yes - that’s right! Same as the “cotton ball” diet.

YUMMY! Just add a dash of Tobasco sauce and go...blah...


11 posted on 11/14/2010 8:19:01 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (Massachusetts: like sh*t, it happens.)
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To: dljordan
Is this something you know from experience?

Of course not. If a professional building contractor tried to do that he'd probably be thrown into a lunatic asylum. Alas, we don't treat highly-educated economists the same way we treat building contractors.

Actually, the analogy came to mind because this weekend I went to install a Kohler medicine cabinet in my bathroom. The damned thing was designed so that the only way you could install it was with drywall anchors. I was damned if I was going to hang a 35-pound cabinet with anchors, so I ended up taking the wall apart and building up the area between the studs so I'd have something solid to screw the cabinet into.

12 posted on 11/14/2010 8:19:37 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
painful currency gyrations

George Soros is behind this.


13 posted on 11/14/2010 8:21:06 AM PST by Reeses
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To: george76; newgeezer

It’s like a factory that is not able to sell it’s product so it spends all of it’s money and all of it’s credit and then some hiring maintenance men.


14 posted on 11/14/2010 8:22:32 AM PST by DungeonMaster (My dad put his arm around me like that once, to this very day he wears orthopedic shirts.)
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To: coloradan
Money that is printed isn't earned.

A community organizer would be very familiar with the idea of someone getting something (like money) that isn't earned.

That seems to be the pivotal theme of 0's presidency, his policies, his agenda, and his life.

15 posted on 11/14/2010 8:25:18 AM PST by Quiller (When you're fighting to survive, there is no "try" -- there is only do, or do not.)
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To: george76

It’s not clueless. The White House and the Czars know exactly what they are doing. That’s what has to stop.....even if it means stopping it prior to the 2012 elections.


16 posted on 11/14/2010 8:40:39 AM PST by RC2
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To: george76

What she really meant to say was your forefathers had more insight and foreskin than you do.


17 posted on 11/14/2010 8:45:35 AM PST by mmanager
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To: ExTexasRedhead; Justice Seeker; fieldmarshaldj; Impy

Ben Bernanke needs to be removed from office.


18 posted on 11/14/2010 8:57:34 AM PST by Clintonfatigued (Illegal aliens commit crimes that Americans won't commit.)
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To: george76

The Republicans should get out ahead of Obama on this and run commericals to build political capital—by showing them what the rest of the world thinks about Obama’s economics and the Fed’s Democrat-commanded “dual mandate”.

Funny how much has “changed”, with Obama defending his pro-America/America first” economic policy the way he condemned Bush for being unapologetic about defending America militarily....

The scary thing about Obama and the Dems is that economic cooperation is meant to keep the world peaceably trading and cooperating...eg, Bretton Woods...whereas Obama is trying to completely “go it alone” on Keynesian fiscal and monetary policy...while at the same time, he doesn’t want to protect our flanks militarily should it blow up in our face and incite agression.

Carry a big stick if you’re gonna go it alone and act like the rugged individual of the G20.


19 posted on 11/14/2010 9:08:53 AM PST by Beowulf9
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To: GOPsterinMA

People have been enjoying the benifets of big mac sawdust burgers for some time.

“Lovin it!”


20 posted on 11/14/2010 9:14:05 AM PST by winodog
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