Alternative Visions - Central Bankers Out of Control - 09.23.16

Today’s show examines and discusses the past week’s major decisions by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, and how they represent growing failure and desperation of central bank monetary policy globally. Bank of Japan promises to keep bond rates at zero for another ten years and to continue to inject money until inflation exceeds 2%. The Federal Reserve forecasts US growth rates through 2019 at a mere 1.9% GDP, but predicts unemployment rates will fall to 4.5% even as it raises interest rates (staring December) from 0.5% to 2.6%.  Jack discusses how this contradiction makes no sense and why a US recession is on the agenda in 2017-18 that will blow all those Fed projections. Meanwhile, the Fed creates another fictitious ‘target’—by aligning nominal interest rates with an unknown ‘neutral rate’. Monetary policy is broken and central banks are desperately searching for cover.