Monthly Archives: September 2021

What Should the Fed Do?

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Nick Timiraos, in his Wall Street Journal piece expressed some concern about the tightrope the Federal Reserve bankers must walk (his phrasing) regarding its bond purchase taper and what others, especially market players, might say about the Fed’s dot plot—a graph that’s generated from individual board members’ views of raising and lowering interest rates and to what level.

Getting that message [regarding bond purchasing] to stick could be tricky when the central bank’s two-day meeting concludes Wednesday if new interest-rate projections—the so-called dot plot—show officials are considering rate increases at the same time….

The only way to make any message stick is for the Fed to do what it says it will do in its “messaging,” regardless of any outside dumpster-diving interpretations of their tea leaf scraps. Seers are going to claim to see regardless of what the Fed does. If the Fed says it’s going to taper its bond purchase program, that’s what it should do. Full stop.

Rather than tapering, though—my humble opinion—it’s long past time for the Fed to reduce, to below zero, its bond buying, selling off the bonds it already holds to enormous excess. Put an end to half-measure tapering.

Separately, the WSJ asked

What action, if any, should the Fed take on interest rates?

The Fed should set their benchmark interest rates at levels historically consistent with their target inflation rate of 2%, more or less, and then sit down and be quiet. Stop trying to micromanage market rates.

Neither case is complicated, except that Government bureaucrats overcomplicate them with overthinking.

Duplicity

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President Joe Biden (D) eased travel restrictions for foreign nationals, allowing those who can show proof of vaccination against the Wuhan Virus to enter the US.

Except for illegal aliens. They aren’t even being tested, just checked for symptoms—which at the virus’ early stage are largely the same as those for the flu or a cold. If “symptomatic,” illegal aliens are supposed to be quarantined for two weeks, then sent on their way, often, but far from the norm, via deportation.

Biden explained the difference through his Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

As individuals come across the border, they are both assessed for whether they have any symptoms, if they have symptoms, the intention is for them to have to be quarantined.
They are not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time. I don’t think it’s the same thing.

Never mind that most foreign nationals coming to the US also are not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time. They’re coming on visitor visas to be tourists or to visit family, and on business visas to conduct some business, and then they’re on their way back home.

Biden knows this.

Ratification Bonuses

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Mondelez International has settled its dispute with its workers as the company and the union representing the workers, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, signed a new four-year deal.

One importance of this, as far as I’m concerned, is that the supply of Oreo cookies is secured for that period. But what do I know; I’m a sucker for chocolate- and sugar-based junk food.

The deal, however, consists in large part, of

ratification bonuses, hourly wage increases, and a higher company match for 401(k) contributions….

The real importance of the deal is the inclusion of those ratification bonuses. Mondelez isn’t alone in agreeing to these artificial demands, made by unions for no serious reason, but only as an exercise of union strike-based extortion power.

Businesses need to stop being so meek; they need to stop bending over and accepting “ratification bonuses.” The only thing these things do is serve as an incentive for striking again so the unions can collect yet more vig for ending that one. And the next one. And….

The Failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs

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It’s gotten even worse, astoundingly.

The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to hear from its customers, so to speak, but check your skin color before raising your hand. The VA is holding dozens of “listening sessions” for patients at its medical facilities. Eight cities are being virtually canvassed, with hearings for “racial/ethnic minorities,” “LGBTQ+ veterans,” and so forth.

For instance:

At a session on race last week in Augusta, Ga., a woman who described herself as white spoke in favor of inclusive language and safe spaces. “I appreciate your being upfront about the fact that you’re not a person of color yourself,” the VA’s facilitator chided, “because this listening session is for those from racial and ethnic minorities, to give them that kind of safe space.”

The woman was a member of a VA- and Government-disfavored group of Americans, and so she was told to shut up and sit down.

Now the VA has gone openly racist and sexist, and that’s not only damaging to our nation, it’s despicably harming those who defend and have defended our nation.

The VA is long past reparability; it must be eliminated entirely and all personnel returned to the private sector, not merely reallocated to other government sectors.

Veteranos Administratio delende est.

That’s Nice

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The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee are jointly holding “training” sessions aimed at their activists, our campaign managers, our consultants, everyone who’s in our ecosystem on

topics such as working with the voter file, building turnout projections and vote goals, polling and modeling, online fundraising, digital advertising, social media, grassroots voter contact data and TV optimization.

Their goal is to give their election support audiences

a better understanding of how to be efficient with their time, whom they’re targeting, and the tools they’re using in order to make calls faster, send more text messages, and knock on the right doors.

That’s nice. It’s even highly useful, but it’s badly insufficient.

What about training sessions for actual candidates and their aids and surrogates, sessions aimed at getting them to stop being too timid to go talk to voters where they live?

What about sessions aimed at getting candidates and their aids and surrogates knocking on all doors rather than excluding some voters?

What about sessions aimed at getting candidates and their aids and surrogates into black neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods, Asian-American neighborhoods and talking to these folks directly—in their diners, in their rec centers, in their parks and playgrounds, in their streets?

Unless Republicans and Conservatives stop insisting on reaching their non-white constituents by remote control and instead start talking to them personally, they’ll continue to struggle in elections. And our nation will continue to struggle in the elections’ aftermaths.