Q.E. is over so now it is time for the stock market to fall? It doesn’t actually work that way. Quantitative easing would not be discontinued if there was not another plan for elevating stock prices being implanted at the same time. That is a complete certainty. Americans and other ostensibly free populations are not gong to figure this out soon enough to do them any good. At this point, the hurdle for overcoming instinctive behavior as it applies to economics is just to high.
Trusting government, believing in collective decisions and assuming government is benevolent are all instinctive behaviors. Hardly a soul on earth will believe that the Federal Reserve is not actually focused on improving the economy. Even the members of the Open Market Committee have probably convinced themselves they are performing a public service. The fact is though, that all of the governments in the world are focused on moving asset prices higher and supporting the lifestyles of their richest citizens. This is where all energy and most resources are focused. In the United States government is used only as a tool for rigging markets, managing public opinion and transferring wealth.
There are circumstances where average folks do get benefits from government but other than the rich, there is no group that gains a net benefit. It is easy enough to point to a welfare mother and claim the poor get benefits. There is no net benefit. Government programs for the poor, serve a few of the poor but render most worse off. The minimum wage is the best example. Fantasy says raise the minimum wage and all of the poor benefit. What actually happens is the minimum wage prevents the labor market from ever clearing. The average starting wage would actually be higher if there was no minimum.
There is no conspiracy. It has taken years of abuse for our system to morph into what it is now. Federal Reserve policy has never been anything other than a political agenda. That is what it is today. The political system is unraveling. Even so, the political agenda, as informal as it may be, says elevate stock prices and support the rich. It will take more unraveling before the central banks abandon all heroic efforts to save and turn the stock market. There is a new plan in effect now but the asset enhancement initiative is not over yet. I am not saying it will work for ever or work at all. But, there is no way the group that has turned the United States government into an endless well of effervescing profits from the financial markets is going to figure the gig is up and just walk away.
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