Fed chief inadvertently makes the case for re-electing Trump

American Thinker ^ | 18 May, 2020 | Monica Showalter

[MtnClimber]

Like every Fed chief, President Trump's appointee to the slot, Jerome Powell, is studiously apolitical and circumspect. He often infuriates Trump, who then rage-tweets about him, but I've always been satisfied with him. Trump probably is, too, given that he hasn't told him 'You're fired."

Powell did us a service on Sunday, however, speaking to widely watched 60 Minutes,

SNIP

Here's the part that makes the most sense, though, as an inadvertant endorsement for President Trump: PELLEY: 25% is the estimated height of unemployment during the Great Depression. Do you think history will look back on this time and call this the Second Great Depression?

POWELL: No, I don't. I don't think that's a likely outcome at all. There're some very fundamental differences. The first is that the cause here-- we had a very healthy economy two months ago. And this is an outside event, it is a natural disaster, in effect. And that's one big difference. In the '20s when the Depression, well, when the crash happened and all that, the financial system really failed. Here, our financial system is strong has been able to withstand this.

He pointed out that the economy was great before the coronavirus, and there were no structural issues, so when the crisis was over, it would move back to going back to its natural state. In other words, this wasn't like the big structural meltdowns of past recessions, this wasn't some policy that went wrong -- overspending, bank failure, currency meltdown -- or any of the things that have the makings for real depressions both here and abroad. The structure was great, andthe U.S. just got hit by an unexpected hurricane. It would skew back to what it was if nothing else changed.

[1Old Pro]

Trump was very right all along. Smart people can comprehend the facts. The media in their basements on zoom ignore them preferring to incite fear and panic to help demented biden.

[MtnClimber]

I don’t agree that we are in great shape with the national debt and the unfunded liabilities (like government employee pensions) at the Federal, state and local government levels that have no hope of being met. Corrupt politicians will not bear the pain of fixing what they broke.

[mjp]

keep taxes low + keep interest rates low + keep regulations low + keep people free + keep easy credit + keep increases in the money supply under control = economic recovery

[wny]

nobody in DC is studiously apolitical

[cuban leaf]

The great depression was caused by a lot of things. But one of the causes was too few dollars chasing to many goods and stocks. But the government was not in debt.

This time, we were already expanding too fast and debt was through the roof. And the response was to “print” trillions and trillions of dollars, all in the form of government debt.

We’re gonna be in another Great Depression all right, but it’s going to be a lot different.

You can kill yourself in a car by slamming into a brick wall, or driving yourself off a cliff. They are both fundamentally different, but the result is the same.

My take on this whole thing is, right now, our economy is like the guy that jumps off a 20 story building and, as he passes us on the third floor, yells, “so far, so good!”.

The pavement approaches.

BTW, I do not put this on Trump at all. He’s doing what he has to. He really has no choice. Either give people money or suffer through Civil War II.

I’m just really, REALLY glad I don’t live in an urban area.

[central_va]

You are skipping over the secession of many states. That may go peacefully or it may not.

[Regulator]

It isnt going to go back to “just like before”.

There will be no massive international travel like before, and probably much less intl trade. Big concentrations of people will be a long time coming back.

Whole industries will have to be rebuilt and rethought. That will take years.

So it’s a nice conceit that it’s all gonna be cool, but it isnt.