In the WSJ no less…. In accounts of the political unrest sweeping through the Middle East, one factor, inflation, deserves more attention. Nothing can be more demoralizing to people at the low end of the income scale—where great masses in that region reside—than increases in the cost of basic necessities like food and fuel. It brings them out into the streets to protest government policies, especially in places where mass protests are the only means available to shake the existing power structure.Wow, it’s being recognized! Money printing is a problem? And when the Fed sneezes money, the weak economies of the world, and the poor masses who are highly vulnerable to price rises in the necessities of life, catch pneumonia.Would pursuing policies that lead to starvation be considered an act of war? Would such be considered something for which one could be indicted and tried as a war criminal? Hmmm…… I wonder if Bernanke recognizes the (rather delicious) irony that could come from this, given what ethnic and religious group he belongs to? The Fed is financing a vast and rising federal deficit, following a practice that has been a surefire prescription for domestic inflation from time immemorial. Meanwhile, its policies are stoking a rise in prices that is contributing to political unrest that in some cases might be beneficial but in others might turn out as badly as the overthrow of the shah in 1979. Does any of this suggest that there might be some urgency to bringing the Fed under closer scrutiny?Actually, what it suggests is that we need to add a 20 year prison term to The Federal Reserve Act for violating “stable prices”, then enforce it the next afternoon against one Ben Bernanke. A law without an “or else” is no law at all. |
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