In a recent Washington Post op-ed, former FDIC chair and perpetual-pain-in-Bernanke's-backside Sheila Bair takes some stabs at the Fed's Easy Money For Everyone plan to get our economy chugging back to life and, in the process, makes the entire thing really, REALLY awkward. Cue crickets.
Are you concerned about growing income inequality in America? Are you resentful of all that wealth concentrated in the 1 percent? I’ve got the perfect solution, a modest proposal that involves just a small adjustment in the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy. Best of all, it will mean that none of us have to work for a living anymore.
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Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on.
OMG SHEILA THAT'S HI-LARIOUS. Except any idiot knows inflation is running at just about 2% these days (official inflation, that is, not real inflation) so a 2% interest rate on 10-year T-bills would just about cover that and not much else. Nice try though.
Anyone else have a better plan?