Reading time: 2,192 words, 5 pages, 5 to 9 minutes.
Sometimes the bullshit spewed forth by the Power Elite’s ass media is so laden with propaganda it gags even this bunk-buster. The article below is an excellent example and a wonderful opportunity to shoot some fish in a barrel.
The New York Times has been referred to as the “Grey Lady” for its tendency to present a higher-than-usual ratio of text to graphics. In other words, a lot of words. The Times is one of the Power Elites main propaganda outlets.
As an aside, it’s no wonder, in this increasingly dumbed-down world, that traditional rags like the NYT are losing readership. Here’s a Gerold index that demonstrates how dumbed-down Amerika is becoming. Instead of simply providing the text for viewers to read, I see more and more YouTube videos consisting of some dummy slowly reading text aloud to other dummies for an hour that it would take only about five minutes for me to read silently to myself. It’s said that 25% of the population is functionally illiterate. Sadly, I think the number is growing.
Anyway, let’s get back on track and poke some holes in the Grey Lady. The NYT article is below with my comments in red italics.
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Undeterred, Fed on Track to Temper Its Stimulus
NYAMIN APPELBAUM FEB. 19, 2014
WASHINGTON — When Federal Reserve officials last met at the end of January, they were surprised by the strength of the economy [which slowed down again in January], cheered by the optimism of consumers [who made the Christmas shopping season one of the slowest on record and picked up only slightly in January on the back of increased consumer debt i.e. buying more on credit cards again] and convinced they should continue to dismantle the Fed’s economic stimulus campaign, [because a) they finally realized Quantitative Easing (QE) is NOT working, and b) so-called “dismantling “ actually means increasing debt only $780 billion a year ($65B / mo.) rather than $1,020 billion (down from $85B / mo.) which is still $780 billion deeper in debt] according to an account [blatant propaganda] the Fed released Wednesday.
The account left little doubt Fed officials intend to steadily reduce purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, [because the Fed’s balance sheet is already bloated with government IOU’s and the mortgage-backed securities are toxic derivatives not worth the paper they’re printed on that the Banksters are all too eager to unload to the Fed which will ultimately be backstopped by the taxpayer.] notwithstanding a recent run of disappointing economic data. [No shit, Sherlock! A grain of truth sprouting amongst the bullshit] John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said Wednesday on CNBC that even a third consecutive month of paltry job creation was not likely to deter the Fed from tapering again. [How many months of poor ‘jobs data’ do these idiots need beaten over their empty skulls before they admit we’re six years into a multi-decade Depression? And, the so-called jobs are mostly McJobs paying too little for anyone to raise a family. And the cooked unemployment statistics are bullshit to begin with as I’ve shown in numerous previous articles.]
“In my view, the hurdle is pretty high on changing the pace of the step-downs in our purchases that we started back in December,” Mr. Williams said. [That’s a lot of new-speak & double negatives, but it means they’ll keep going deeper into debt but not quite as fast] “I think that, in fact, to my mind, it would take more than just some weak, relatively weak, reports.” [Like what, for instance? Normally, reports of economic STRENGTH are a reason for reducing stimulus but these are not normal times, are they? So, reducing stimulus during times of economic weakness is a tacit admission we are well past the point-of-no-return and nothing they do makes a damn bit of difference which I’ve been writing for several years now.]
And there were no indications from the meeting that the Fed was particularly concerned about the effect its actions might have on emerging markets, some of which were in turmoil at the beginning of the year because of fears that tighter money and higher interest rates might harm their prospects for growth. [Do you expect them to admit that all the counterfeited ‘hot money’ they created that flooded into Third World Emerging Market economies seeking yield that THEY destroyed at home with their Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) is destabilizing these Emerging markets when the money flows back out? Do you expect them to care? Do you think they’re smart enough to realize how stupid it is shooting holes in the other side of our globalized economic ship that threatens to sink the whole ship? Answer: NO, they’re idiots. They still making it up as they go and they don’t have a clue what they’re doing.]
In contrast to the consensus on continuing to reduce bond purchases, the account showed that officials remain conflicted about the next major step in the Fed’s retreat: What to tell investors about when the Fed plans to start raising short-term interest rates, which it has held near zero since 2008. [a) Is this dissension in the ranks? What happened to new Fed Chairperson Yellen’s promise of ‘greater transparency’? b) Raise interest rates? You’re shittin’ me! At a time of unprecedented debt levels neither the economy nor the government can afford to pay higher interest costs without destroying both. This is either more BS or further evidence of their utter stupidity.]
One leading possibility is that the Fed will choose to obscure its internal divisions for a time by retreating from its recent practice of tying policy to specific economic thresholds, instead substituting a less specific description of its goals. [In other words, they’re STILL making it up as they go and they haven’t a clue what works or what they’re doing. We’re friggin’ DOOMED, but at least we can laughing about it.]
The next meeting of the policy-making committee, scheduled for March 18 and 19, will be the first under the leadership of the new Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen. [whose honeymoon will likely be over shortly when economic reality bites.]
Fed officials cited the resurgence of consumer spending, the main engine of domestic economic growth, as the reason for their growing optimism. [like I said; slow Christmas retail sales, slow January, increased credit card debt – they call that ‘optimism’.]
“While noting that households remained cautious, [Wait a minute. Above they said that they were “cheered by the optimism of consumers’, but now they’re saying the opposite.] participants cited a number of factors that were likely to continue to underpin gains in household spending [like I said; maxing out their credit cards again], including rising house prices, [largely due to corporations and funds buying to flip or rent] growing confidence in the sustainability of the economic expansion, [maybe the Fed’s confidence. No one else’s!] increasing payrolls,” [McJobs] according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, released after a standard three-week delay.
Indeed, there was little sign of concern about a string of underwhelming economic reports during the early weeks of 2014, which has checked the optimism of some economic forecasters. [In other words they’re whistling past the graveyard. Remember one of my mantras; “you can’t pretend your way out of trouble.”] Officials, the account said, “generally did not expect the recent pace of economic growth to be sustained, but they nonetheless anticipated that the economy would expand at a moderate pace in coming quarters.” [In other words, they’re warning us of another slowdown.]
The Fed expects growth this year between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent.[When factored for the REAL http://www.shadowstats.com inflation rate, the economy is sinking.]
“The economic data released since the Fed’s January 28-29th meeting has been largely disappointing,” James Marple, senior economist at TD Bank, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. “However, the bout of unseasonably cold weather has made deciphering weather from weakness in economic data increasingly difficult. Unless the data continues to deteriorate, it is unlikely to change the Fed’s position.” [They can’t blame Bush anymore so now they blame the weather on everything from slowing housing and reduced manufacturing.]
There were some shadows. [No shit, Sherlock!] Concern about the sluggish pace of inflation remained at a steady simmer. [Say what? What’s simmering? Their concern or the pace of inflation? The REAL U.S. inflation rate is about 9% per Shadowstats and obscured only by the governments own ‘cooked’ statistics.] While the account reiterated the Fed’s official expectation that price increases will gradually return to the Fed’s preferred 2 percent annual pace, it noted “several factors that cast doubt on this outcome,” including the slow pace of wage growth [Wait a minute! What happened to ‘increasing payrolls’ above or is that shorthand for just more McJobs?] and the low level of inflation in other developed countries. [We’re left guessing whatever THAT has to do with the U.S.]
The account noted the turbulence in emerging markets, [Above it said they weren’t concerned. Changed their minds again?] a slowdown in the housing recovery [What happened to ‘rising house prices’ above?] and “the financing situation of the Puerto Rican government.” [That’s a nice way to say the Amerikan protectorate is bankrupt.]
These concerns did not weigh heavily. The account said that even Fed officials who have strongly supported asset purchases agreed that “a pause in the reduction in purchases was not justified at this stage.” [this contradicts what they said earlier that reduction would continue.] In a further indication of the direction of internal debate, the account said “a few participants” suggested the possibility the Fed would need to start raising interest rates “relatively soon.” [Also contradiction. They’re sucking and blowing at the same time.]
The Fed has said since 2012 that it intended keep short-term rates near zero at least as long as the unemployment rate remained above 6.5 percent. It said in December that it intended to wait well beyond that time, but it did not elaborate. With the unemployment rate at the time of the most recent meeting having fallen to 6.6 percent, the account said that officials agreed that it would “soon be appropriate” to say more. [All talk, no action.]
Some officials would like to move the threshold to a lower unemployment rate. Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, has proposed 5.5 percent. [They keep moving the goal post. D’ya think perhaps they don’t know what they’re doing?] Others would prefer to be vague, broadly describing the Fed’s economic goals without providing specific benchmarks. While this would diminish the Fed’s power to shape market expectations, it would accommodate the reality that Fed officials do not agree what the benchmarks should be. [A clear admission they don’t know what they’re doing and everything they’ve tried hasn’t worked.]
In calibrating its efforts, the Fed is trying to assess the health of labor markets. [Meaningless statement.]
The share of Americans with jobs remains far lower than before the financial crisis. [No shit, Sherlock!] According the account, however, Fed officials are increasingly convinced that monetary policy cannot reverse much of that decline. Work-force participation was falling before the recession, and a growing number of Fed officials think that the long-term trend — driven by the march of the baby boomers into retirement — is now close to catching up with the precipitous drop during the recession. [An admission of complete failure! Long term economic problems are STRUCTURAL not cyclical so only fiscal and regulatory policy can address structural problems, not monetary policy. They wasted six years of monetary policy. We are so far past the point-of-no-return now that even fiscal and regulatory policy won’t work anymore even if Congress got off their collective asses and did something. We’re friggin’ DOOMED. Keep laughing folks; it’s all we got left.]
The Fed’s staff also reduced its formal estimate of the economy’s potential output, suggesting they believe the economy will not return to the higher growth rates achieved before the Great Recession. [A tacit admission we’re in a Great Depression and about to get a whole lot worse.]
The share of younger adults with jobs also declined sharply during the recession, but Fed officials seem increasingly doubtful about reversing that trend, too. [Another tacit admission of abject failure of another of the Fed’s mandates. I sure hope new Fed Chairperson Yellen knows what a shit sandwich Ben Bernanke left her with.]
The account said only “a few participants judged that the decline in participation for younger and prime-age workers likely reflected the slow recovery in jobs and wages and so might be reversed as labor market conditions strengthened.” [Wishful thinking. “As labor markets strengthened” means a big IF they strengthened and that’s nowhere in sight.]
[Now do you see why I enjoy reading the Grey Lady? Monty Python couldn’t provide so much gallows humor without even trying.]
Gerold
February 23, 2013
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