I have read that politicians love inflation, because it’s an invisible tax.

Dr Evil on August 5, 2011 at 12:58 PM

Only when the newly minted money comes out under their control (like when the fed buys T bonds). Banks are who really like some predictable level of systematic inflation, because it forces people to put their money in the banks (or lose value) and means that the banks can pass the cost of malinvestments back to depositors by setting the interest rate lower than the inflation rate.

And I don’t mean BS reform like raising the retirement age to 67 over 20 years.

SukieTawdry on August 6, 2011 at 4:34 AM

but that will have to be done too…

Good piece, Ed. I agree with everything you said we should do and I wouldn’t stop there. The necessity of reforming entitlements is absolute. And I don’t mean BS reform like raising the retirement age to 67 over 20 years.

{^_^}

He (Klein)attended the University of California, Santa Cruz but later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 2005 with a B.A. in political science. While at UCLA, he applied to write for the Daily Bruin but was rejected.[2]
…

Klein started his first blog in February 2003.

His Resume:
HE COULDN’T GET A JOB ON HIS COLLEGE NEWSPAPER SO HE STARTED A BLOG.

Then MSNBC hired him to pontificate on air.

That’s like giving someone a job at NASA because they flunked math in college.

Dr Evil on August 5, 2011 at 2:11 PM

Much of the inflation has been in commodities. They got hit pretty good too as money went from them and equities to cash and Treasurys.

I saw a report this morning that $2.5 Trillion in value came out of the world stock markets. Interestingly, the US recently has a need to borrow another $2.5 Trillion. Hmmmmmmmmmm…

Politicians don’t ask where the money is coming from that they borrow. But of course, it comes from investors. So it behoves the government to see a stampede out of equities and into Treasurys. It ain’t called the Safe Haven for nothing. And just when you worry about what a raise in yields would do to the deficit, because of the rush to th exits on Wall Street yields crater; the 2-year treasury now pays one quarter of one percent. Nice doin’ bidness wit ya.

Government wants to chase money from stocks to treasurys. But the it has to follow up with a way to inflate stocks to make the economy seem to improve, which is where QE3 will come in. Enter stage right, we’ve gotten just this morning news of massive QE in Europe to purchase EEU member’s outstanding debt. Naturally, we’re going to respond with our own printing to buy our own debt (and some of theirs), but just a bit less to keep bucky looking good against all other currencies.

Everyone reading Hot Air needs to understand this golden triangle: 1)chase money out of equities, 2) sop it up at low interest to fund new debt, then 3) print to inflate prices of equities. Wash, rinse, repeat.

After college, Santelli began trading in 1979 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in various markets, including commodities, CD’s, Treasuries, and currencies.[1]

During the time he spent as a financial trader and executive, Santelli worked for Drexel Burnham Lambert as the Vice President of Interest Rate Futures and Options.[1]

No, not all opinions are equal. Childish fantasies about liberalism are low on the credibility scale.

Who would you trust to invest your money, Ezra Klein or Rick Santelli?

This was man versus little geek boy, not even a contest!