The Republican and Democratic debates have touched upon a wide range of issues: free trade, the minimum wage, income inequality, ISIS and Syria. But there are two topics that have been pretty much avoided by both parties: a non-interventionist foreign policy and the Federal Reserve.
No one expects the Hillary Clintons or the Marco Rubios of the United States to ever embrace a humble foreign policy. However, when it comes to issues of the income inequality (Bernie Sanders), currency manipulation (Donald Trump) and balanced budgets (John Kasich), one would think the Federal Reserve would be at least mentioned once or twice in a long-winded answer. Where is the Federal Reserve in any of these discussions?
Perhaps because Ron Paul isn’t in the debates, the U.S. central bank will continued to be ignored. In 2008 and 2012, the Fed became a hot topic of political discourse. In 2016, the only slight mention of the Fed has been by Trump, who has talked of bubbles and Janet Yellen (SEE: Donald Trump wants to audit the Federal Reserve, criticizes Ted Cruz for missing key vote), Kasich, who blames the Fed’s interest rates for stagnant wages and Ted Cruz, who alluded to the Audit the Fed bill (SEE: Is Ted Cruz stealing Rand Paul’s thunder on monetary policy?).
For the most part, however, the Fed hasn’t been a main talking point or debated topic. CNN, Fox News and CBS have avoided asking anything about it – they’re more interested in preparing for Clinton’s ascension to her throne. Essentially, the Fed has been given a free pass by the political candidates and the media.
Why has the Fed received amnesty in the GOP debates? That’s what David Stockman, former Reagan budget director and bestselling author of “The Great Deformation,” wants to know.
Writing in an op-ed piece on Newsmax, Stockman explains that each of the candidates have put forward their own economic stimulus plans, employment initiatives and tax ideas without even citing the Fed. Why?
Weak American productivity, low net investment numbers, printing machines at full capacity and several-year policies of near-zero interest rates should be figures talked about. Let’s not get into just how badly savers and retirees are getting beaten and battered or the $4 trillion balance sheet.
“Given that damning bill of particulars, what condign punishment did our GOP debaters offer Janet Yellen and her destructive band of Fed money printers?” he wrote. “You might as well call it amnesty. Not one of them even mentioned the joint!”
Stockman adds:
“That’s right. Tens of millions of savers and retirees have been criminally assaulted by an institution so far down the rabbit hole of monetary central planning that it has not even noticed that the nation is swamped under Peak Debt. Nor is it cognizant of the fact that this $62 trillion of public and private debt is now crushing what remains of capitalist enterprise in America, and that, accordingly, no amount of interest rate cutting can induce more borrowing by households that are already tapped-out.
“Yet our GOP champions of restoring capitalist prosperity did not think to pin the donkey’s tail where it belongs. Namely, squarely on the nest of arrogant anti-market interventionists and statist usurpers who occupy the Eccles Building and who slavishly do the bidding of their Wall Street masters for fear of provoking a hissy fit in the casino.”
The ones who think the U.S. economy is doing well because of Barack Obama avoid the boom-bust cycle. The ones who think the U.S. economy is doing poorly blame it on China’s currency devaluation while avoiding the Bernanke-Yellen partnership.
With the primary season winding down, one can only hope that the general election will incorporate the Fed into the debate. The chances of that happening are slim.
–AM
Because of the world wide control of wages to benefit the multi-national corporations since 1970 real wages for most Americans has lost purchasing power. The only way most families have maintained the illusion of a middle class standard of living is with credit. We use it for everything. I remember when I entered the workforce in 1974 most people used credit only to buy a car or house. This cannot go on much longer, when the credit bubble pops it is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.