A.J. DiCintio
Trickle-down fairy dust
By A.J. DiCintio
During the campaign, a deeply earnest Barack Obama took advantage of every possible opportunity to tell voters he absolutely, positively can't abide the idea "that somehow we're going to grow this economy from the top down."
Not limiting himself to expressing revulsion, he also mocked the concept as "trickle-down fairy dust," which, in its failed past, "didn't cut the deficit, create jobs, or revive the middle class."
Now, upon hearing those passionately expressed absolutist assertions, people who strive to be brutally honest about The Mind of the Politician immediately concluded as follows:
"As long as he gets to do it his way, President Obama absolutely, positively worships the concept of trickle-down economics."
As a reward for their courage and honesty, those folks turned out to be not simply right but brilliantly correct; for the fact is that with the lavishly obedient help of Ben of the Federal Reserve, Barack has been conducting a policy of trickle-down economics so frighteningly vast that compared to any GOP version it's the earth against a floating fleck of feather.
To be precise, by the end of this year, Obama's policy will have created four trillion newly printed dollars (yes, that's an incredible four trillion fairy dust dollars), most of them ending up in the nation's banks, the six largest of which have a combined $9.3 trillion in assets, a reality prompting the ironic cry, "He's enriched the richest entities on the planet!"
However, the irony of Obama's hypocrisy doesn't end with the fact his policy has made the very rich richer – including big banks as well as other very deep-pocketed entities that speculate in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, real estate, and a multitude of derivatives.
Nor does it end with the truth that little of the nine trillion has trickled down for the public's benefit, exemplified by the policy's failure to cut the deficit, create the number of good jobs the country desperately needs, and revive the middle class, whose long, slow, downward slide has continued unabated under the oxymoronic "Obama Recovery."
No, sir and ma'am. We're talking here about Perfect Irony because in addition to its perverse payoff and failures, the president's "expansionary" monetary experiment is inflicting pain on the middle class as it creates the rapacious monster called inflation.
Furthermore, if it produces bubbles that burst into another great recession or depression . . .Well, no need to go into detail about how much pain just one trillion exploding dollars can inflict on John Q. and Jane Public.
However, whether it's corrosive inflation or explosive bubbles, we aren't getting any straight talk from President Hope or President Change.
Therefore, for the truth about the "acceptable" 2% inflation "target" Barack and Ben crow about, we can turn to CNNMoney.com, whose everyday examples show that compared to just one year ago, increasingly cash strapped shoppers are paying 70 cents more for a gallon of milk (+23%) and 51 cents more for a gallon of gas (+17%).
Or to the American Institute for Economic Research, whose Everyday Price Index shows an inflation rate of 8% over the past twelve months. (Jay Leno might comment with his inimitable sarcasm, "Thank goodness for the minimum 8% pay raise every worker got last year!")
Or to independent analysts such as Gary Halbert, who argues (mauldineconomics.com) that today as for the past 35 years, the Consumer Price Index has been "manipulated" downward by a government desperate to minimize Social Security cost of living increases as well as the interest it must pay on a debt that today stands at a ferociously growing $16.7 trillion.
To assess the likelihood that four trillion fairy dust dollars might blow dangerously huge bubbles into existence, we can listen to Blake Hurst (american.com) who writes that farmers "have figured out . . . it's a losing game to invest in bonds or CD's at rates less than inflation" as they find themselves thrust into "tax brackets [they] never knew existed."
As a result of the resulting search for investments yielding a higher return, Hurst reports that land prices in the Corn Belt have increased at "double-digit rates." For instance, he tells us, Iowa land that sold for $2,275 an acre ten years ago is now going for $8,700 per acre.
Hurst goes on to say that while reasonable people can argue over "what economic policy works best," he believes that with its current monetary policy, the federal government is "performing surgery on the economy with a chainsaw."
However, Barack and Ben's "Quantitative Easing" is pushing up more than the price of land, as exemplified by the dramatic jump in the cost of commodities of all kinds, especially agricultural.
Moreover, it's no secret QE has been the fundamental force driving U.S. stock markets higher and higher, indeed, so much higher that huge numbers of formerly reluctant Johns and Janes are plowing money into equities, a sign that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e to every honest financial professional.
This enormous volume of cheap American money has also ballooned its way into markets of developing nations, where twofold and threefold increases in prices just might presage headlines that scream "BUST!"
Of course, while the pain of inflation is real, it's not certain Obama's funny money policy will lead to the kind of "irrational exuberance" that always produces devastating consequences.
However, what is unquestionable is that as he shoots entirely in the dark, Barack Obama, like the worst of politicians, is not just guilty of hypocrisy but also of lying or remaining immorally silent about the toxic effects of his enormous and unprecedented trickle-down gamble.
© A.J. DiCintio
April 7, 2013
During the campaign, a deeply earnest Barack Obama took advantage of every possible opportunity to tell voters he absolutely, positively can't abide the idea "that somehow we're going to grow this economy from the top down."
Not limiting himself to expressing revulsion, he also mocked the concept as "trickle-down fairy dust," which, in its failed past, "didn't cut the deficit, create jobs, or revive the middle class."
Now, upon hearing those passionately expressed absolutist assertions, people who strive to be brutally honest about The Mind of the Politician immediately concluded as follows:
"As long as he gets to do it his way, President Obama absolutely, positively worships the concept of trickle-down economics."
As a reward for their courage and honesty, those folks turned out to be not simply right but brilliantly correct; for the fact is that with the lavishly obedient help of Ben of the Federal Reserve, Barack has been conducting a policy of trickle-down economics so frighteningly vast that compared to any GOP version it's the earth against a floating fleck of feather.
To be precise, by the end of this year, Obama's policy will have created four trillion newly printed dollars (yes, that's an incredible four trillion fairy dust dollars), most of them ending up in the nation's banks, the six largest of which have a combined $9.3 trillion in assets, a reality prompting the ironic cry, "He's enriched the richest entities on the planet!"
However, the irony of Obama's hypocrisy doesn't end with the fact his policy has made the very rich richer – including big banks as well as other very deep-pocketed entities that speculate in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, real estate, and a multitude of derivatives.
Nor does it end with the truth that little of the nine trillion has trickled down for the public's benefit, exemplified by the policy's failure to cut the deficit, create the number of good jobs the country desperately needs, and revive the middle class, whose long, slow, downward slide has continued unabated under the oxymoronic "Obama Recovery."
No, sir and ma'am. We're talking here about Perfect Irony because in addition to its perverse payoff and failures, the president's "expansionary" monetary experiment is inflicting pain on the middle class as it creates the rapacious monster called inflation.
Furthermore, if it produces bubbles that burst into another great recession or depression . . .Well, no need to go into detail about how much pain just one trillion exploding dollars can inflict on John Q. and Jane Public.
However, whether it's corrosive inflation or explosive bubbles, we aren't getting any straight talk from President Hope or President Change.
Therefore, for the truth about the "acceptable" 2% inflation "target" Barack and Ben crow about, we can turn to CNNMoney.com, whose everyday examples show that compared to just one year ago, increasingly cash strapped shoppers are paying 70 cents more for a gallon of milk (+23%) and 51 cents more for a gallon of gas (+17%).
Or to the American Institute for Economic Research, whose Everyday Price Index shows an inflation rate of 8% over the past twelve months. (Jay Leno might comment with his inimitable sarcasm, "Thank goodness for the minimum 8% pay raise every worker got last year!")
Or to independent analysts such as Gary Halbert, who argues (mauldineconomics.com) that today as for the past 35 years, the Consumer Price Index has been "manipulated" downward by a government desperate to minimize Social Security cost of living increases as well as the interest it must pay on a debt that today stands at a ferociously growing $16.7 trillion.
To assess the likelihood that four trillion fairy dust dollars might blow dangerously huge bubbles into existence, we can listen to Blake Hurst (american.com) who writes that farmers "have figured out . . . it's a losing game to invest in bonds or CD's at rates less than inflation" as they find themselves thrust into "tax brackets [they] never knew existed."
As a result of the resulting search for investments yielding a higher return, Hurst reports that land prices in the Corn Belt have increased at "double-digit rates." For instance, he tells us, Iowa land that sold for $2,275 an acre ten years ago is now going for $8,700 per acre.
Hurst goes on to say that while reasonable people can argue over "what economic policy works best," he believes that with its current monetary policy, the federal government is "performing surgery on the economy with a chainsaw."
However, Barack and Ben's "Quantitative Easing" is pushing up more than the price of land, as exemplified by the dramatic jump in the cost of commodities of all kinds, especially agricultural.
Moreover, it's no secret QE has been the fundamental force driving U.S. stock markets higher and higher, indeed, so much higher that huge numbers of formerly reluctant Johns and Janes are plowing money into equities, a sign that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e to every honest financial professional.
This enormous volume of cheap American money has also ballooned its way into markets of developing nations, where twofold and threefold increases in prices just might presage headlines that scream "BUST!"
Of course, while the pain of inflation is real, it's not certain Obama's funny money policy will lead to the kind of "irrational exuberance" that always produces devastating consequences.
However, what is unquestionable is that as he shoots entirely in the dark, Barack Obama, like the worst of politicians, is not just guilty of hypocrisy but also of lying or remaining immorally silent about the toxic effects of his enormous and unprecedented trickle-down gamble.
© A.J. DiCintio
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