But on the plus side, think of all of the taxpayer-subsidized arbitrage left for the large banks to take that money that you deposit, multiply it by 2.5 and invest in the open market for returns of 5% and greater.

Thank you Uncle Sam and Fed for keeping the big banks wealthy and uncompetitive!

The good Doctor is right, we need to end the Fed.

I wish you luck in the stock market. Be careful not to make too much money or the government will try to redistribute your wealth.

Just another sign that the economy is still in the toilet!!!!

PS. why try and make money??? The government will just give it to someone that did not earn it!

Just sit back and let OBUMO take care of you at other people's expense.

yep, face it you live in America.

Well, guess us seniors will be dead before we can get any interest on our savings. Bummer.

I do not think that the fed should have made the statement with such a long time line. Now if the situation changes such as inflation heating up and they need to raise rates sooner everyone will be crying foul. The banking system will take a hit because they all made investment decisions based on the long term low interest rate statement from the fed.

Don't go to the stock market........they're ripping people off like mad in there right now. The central banks around the world have been pumping stock prices up since about mid-November.

Yep, one more reason to look at the alternative of Ron Paul, this statement from the fed should pretty much kill any chance of real recovery for years. I try to save some money to get ahead but inflation is twice what I can make in interest and as a working stiff I don't have hours and hours free time to do market research to try to invest in the markets wisely. Guess I'll try the governments approach, irresponsibly. Need to find the nearest casino and put my savings on black, better make that red, the last choice to "vote for change" has been anything but lucky and looking to get worse.

Over-speculation causes bubbles, bubbles pop and sometimes almost bring the entire economy with it. We have had an over-speculation problem since the 80's. Too many people making money with money instead of making things or providing services. The people who work making things or providing services have seen their wages and benefits stagnate or shrink to support this growing speculation. If we don't change course soon it will all collapse.

Why buy worthless CDs or throw your money into an unpredicaible stock market? As long as interest rates don't go up, bonds...especially long term bonds....are the place to be. I had one bond fund return 11% last year, tax free!

Whoever thought that America could still have a strong economy while exporting more than half of our manufacturing jobs offshore should have their head examined. If our own companies can't compete with imports, than we need protective tariffs just like we used to have. There is no good reason to force the American middle class to compete with the workforce of nations such as China or Mexico where environmental and worker's rights laws are much less strict than our own are.

If our own industrialists want to have a chance at the Chinese market, I say have at it, but don't expect to produce products for US consumption in China and undercut our own workers and our own environmental protections here at home either.

It would be quite simple to effect a strong economic recovery by re-enacting trade policies that seek to protect American workers and their jobs at home first, and then the Fed wouldn't need to continue an interest rate policy ruinous to those of us living off of our retirement savings or those of us about to retire too.

Obviously the swing voter from Ohio hasn't lost enough of his savings in the markets yet, as it would take a whole lot more than low interest rates to convince many of us would-be small investors that the equities markets offer a safe place to invest our meager savings given the history of economic performance and governmental policy over the last 12 years.

Beware of the stock market. Our IRA's took about a $60K hit. Wish I would have just schlepped the $$ into a .5% savings account at the first sign of trouble. The amount we lost far exceeded the capital gains tax we would have had to pay to put the $$ in a savings account. And, we would not have lost anything. Good luck to you if you invest in the stock market.

Actually, the stock market is only a gamble for gamblers. With luck, you can get rich. Without it you can lose your butt.

On the other hand, if you buy right, you will make some money, over time. Not any luck to it.

Interesting how they predict a stable inflation rate which is easy to do when you remove food and fuel expenses from the computations. Am I the only one aware that the inflation rate no longer takes those two things into account. The fuel one is particularly dangerous, as it inflates the cost to the consumer on absolutely every product we have to purchase. Farmers claim higher fuel costs in the course of farming and then getting products to market, but that isn't inflation. Higher fuel costs means that it costs all of us more to go to work and collect our stagnant pay checks, even if we use public transportation which has had to increase fares in most major markets because of fuel increases.

Not sure how the redistribution of wealth is particularly germane to this article, but to respond to Dr. Paul's supporter: If the wealth of this country has become increasingly concentrated in the upper quintile over the last forty years, how is tax reform redistribution? Aren't we supposed to have a progressive tax code?

Republicans need to prove that "investment" income deserves to have a substantially lower tax rate than "ordinary" income. As a collective, we have decided to preference the wealthy and investors through the tax code because of a presumed benefit to society; the middle class is subsidizing the wealthy and the poor in our country.

I believe we have a moral obligation and that it is in our own self interest to maintain certain social safety net programs - how they should be run and how much we should spend is certainly up for legitimate debate. But I also believe that a progressive tax code should be the default and deviations from that should have to come with a real argument based in fact. Wealth of Nations was about banking and pooling resources, not about a huge concentration of wealth with individuals.

@ Small Business Owner-2623619

Well said +1

No Fed rate hikes til 2014? Now if we can get the legalize loan sharkers (banks) to do the same, we're all set!

Don't go to the stock market........they're ripping people off like mad in there right now.

Yawn. I never ceased to be amazed at how people like you who (1) have never had the guts or smarts to invest, or (2) impulsively yanked what you did have in the market when things went south in 2008 (or in any recession) continue to try and talk others out of investing. Me.....I have never pulled my holdings for any recession. In fact, I have continued to dollar cost invest thousands per year in the market since 2008. And guess what? Nothing but overall positive returns. And I'm mostly in mutuals and ETFs. How about that. If you know what the he]] you're doing, you WILL be fine in the market. Sucks to be you??

Seniors living on fixed incomes are being screwed by the bearded wonder from the Fed, but he does not give a damn so long as he can continue to prop up the banks that caused much of the financial mess in the first place.

Easy money from the Fed under Greenspan (another Fed wonderboy) coupled with unscrupulous banks, bad legislation and extremely poor oversight from Congress, and the greed of wall street shysters blew up the economy, and now the Fed has decided that punishing savers will fix this mess.

He has now removed interest paid to savers from 2009 through 2014 to the tune of about $600 billion a year x six years = 3.6 trillion removed from discretionary incomes. do you think this increases demand (jobs) or decreases demand (jobs)?

My only question is where is the rage against this abuse and absolute stupidity? The economic collapse engineered by the Fed, the banks, Congress, and Wall Street wiped out 16 trillion dollars of wealth and has now added another 7 trillion more to the national debt. How can anyone say that we saved the system by saving the big banks?

Holding interest rates so low also removes any reason to buy a house now, so potential buyers will just sit on the sidelines for now. Therefore the numbers of buyers will continue to stay low which will continue to push the market values of houses even lower until such time as there is once again a reason to buy a house (like the possibility of interest rates going up again).

This is just another unintended consequence of the actions of the un-elected money czars at the Fed. What the Fed has now done is to guarantee housing will continue to fall in value, and that savers will not be rewarded for saving. This will encourage people to spend and go deeper into debt, which is the opposite of an economic solution and one Hell of an expensive economic experiment by our resident academic at the Federal Reserve. Folks, you need to listen to Ron Paul. It is time to end the Federal Reserve..

@ Glenn-974637

Agreed! Additionally, look at the Phillips Curve.

If anyone has any wonder why inflation remains low, look no further than to the high unemployment rate helping to keep it under control.

Ron Paul's opinion of the Fed's actions are well founded, but I disagree with his prescribed action to dissolve it.

Having a fiat currency without a means of managing it is suicidal...it would effectively be like removing the rudder and keel from a ship in a storm

Leaving the fiat currency and reverting to a commodity-denominated one is actually very risky. This mode was ditched for a good reason. Commodities are subject to wild swings in the market and manipulation and while switching to the gold standard for a brief period would allow the US to pay off all of its immediate debt obligations, it would also have the effect of making it entirely unaffordable to have anything produced in the US or purchase from the US because all things denominated in USD would be 1,000-times more expensive than previously. Say goodbye to the rest of US manufacturing and many many more middle class jobs as it becomes 1,000-times more profitable to outsource.

SamuelsS

There is not much the FED can do.

1. FED makes credit easy.

Only for the big banks. Anyone who has to buy debt at the retail level is still getting the shaft. Last I checked, me and my perfect credit score still can't borrow any amount from the banks for near-zero like they can from the Fed. And short of asset-backed debt like a mortgage, debenture debt like my credit card has a hefty double-digit interest rate if I were not to pay off the entire balance every month.

2. Banks do not lend because they don't think they will get their money back.

Banks aren't lending because they don't have to, they've got cheap money from the Fed and an open-door policy to play in the market. Us little people are stuck putting our money in the same exact place, and hate to break it to you, but the house advantage goes to the players with the billions in OPM (Other People's Money) access to the best expertise and almost no transaction costs on trades...not you and I.

Churn baby churn!

Why should they give up that arbitrage and slog it out trying to compete for deposits by offering a higher interest rate when they can borrow from our government for virtually nothing and use all of their resources to play in the market against us instead of for us.

3. Borrowers do not borrow because they don't think they can pay it back.

Many borrowers, even with fantastic credit are not able to get credit. Revolving lines of credit are much harder to come by for small businesses and almost any amount of debt not backed by collateral has a super-high interest burden.

Google for "DEFLATIONARY CRASH" to understand how the money supply can deflate despite FED's printing press.

Here is an analogy that explains why free credit won't save the economy:

www.tradingstocks.net/html/jaguar_inflation.html

Personally, I think that the Fed is taking the exact opposite approach that needs to be taken to get us out of this mess.

Raise the Fed Rate, not lower it. Our money supply is far too saturated, banks aren't competing for deposits and the Philips Curve shows that high unemployment is what is keeping inflation at bay.

Banks do not lend because they can make money easily without risk by investing in treasury.

The treasury should not let banks invest and offer odirectly to people and agressively so that people can make some interest and bank will have to struggle to get in loan business or givbe higher interest rate to attract deposit to survive and keep on paying those high salaries

@ RAJ PATEL

Yup! You get it!

Where were you when our government created policy that allowed those of us who have managed to get and keep a decent credit rating to be raped on interest rates. Existing credit card accounts, which were in good standing, without late payment or penalty suddenly went from single digit interest to double digit interest and the only choice available to the consumer was to pay off the debt entirely and do without the credit at all???? Having maintained a good credit history and a long term credit history with a given banking institution did not make a lick of difference. After over 20 years in good standing with Citibank, my credit card interest rates were increased and my credit limits were decreased by a form letter telling me to like it or lump it. Furthermore, my mortgage, also in good standing for the past 24 years could not be refinanced because my house is now considered less value and the % of equity to value owed is skewed (Citibank also holds that) These things have all happened within the last three years, so don't go running and blaming Republicans from 20 years ago, or even ten years ago...the gap in the timeline is to great to have any real credibility with me.

@ Sue-3329001

The banks lowered your credit and increased your interest because they don't have to be competitive to keep you.

You and I are just fodder to them. Our productivity allows these banks to hedge against our steady stream of income to maintain their stable of far riskier investments in indentured servants that are buried under thousands of $$$ in credit card debt and cannot escape it thanks to various bankruptcy reforms passed in the waning years of the Bush Administration. If banks were really scared about lending, they'd stop sending credit card offers to absolutely anyone so long as they have a mailing address!

The excuse is just terribly unethical and short-sighted business practice. But the profits are still immense.

They made risky bets on trying to pass as many mortgages off to Fannie and Freddie as quickly as they could, but when the government lenders started to slow their rate of purchasing down, the banks were left holding the bag of garbage loans they were making to tons of people who couldn't possibly pay them off.

It's a great business selling ticking timebombs so long as you don't keep excess inventory!

don't go running and blaming Republicans from 20 years ago, or even ten years ago.

Why not? The bubble started towards the end of the Clinton Administration as lenders started exploiting loopholes in the Affordable Housing Act to make timebomb-loans to anyone with a pulse; and fueled by the low Fed Rate, they managed to keep the show playing all the way through the end of 2007.

There were plenty of people warning about this bubble for years before the collapse. But the right people in the right places were making too much money to let the gravy train stop (in both parties mind-you).

As always, we citizens are left holding the bag.

You got that right. Vote every incumbant out of office. Send the only message a politician understands.

It's election season don't you know, and no one wants to make the tough decisions to get us out of this mess because they will be the one's whose neck is on the chopping block for making the unpopular moves for their financial backers (note, not their voters).

Our government by-and-large works for big business. Making a decision that goes counter to their interests is a recipe to lose one's financial backing when it comes time to run for re-election...and now with decisions like Citizens United, those same backers can use their financial prowess to throw out those that they don't/no longer favor.

If they quickly admitted fault. I am assuming it happened very very soon after the accident, and way before the cops got involved, which is even earlier than insurance companies get involved. I would like to hear their story then. Its one thing to just admit fault, that part is easy. Much harder when there is money having to be paid by the person at fault, thats where the finger pointing gets involved.

Agreed and agreed. The only thing they are fighting over now is which wolf gets to watch over the sheep. Politicians are addicted to power, which in our system of government is measured by the ability to hand out cash. The only way to get them to stop is to convince them it is better to lose a little power (i.e work within a budget like we poor schlubs have to do) than to lose all power (i.e. lose re-elections). A pox on both their houses, and keep throwing the incumbent bums out and replacing them with new bums until they get the message.

The politicians are using the old "divide and conquer" technique where citizens argue about their favorite party like they are at a football game. I would like to remind everyone of how quickly there was bi-partisan cooperation when the SOPA bill was introduced, which would have benefitted their 1% Studio CEO masters.

@ jw101

Well said +1

I think that they didn't anticipate that people were paying attention on that one. But this will certainly not be the last time that big business and Uncle Sam try to kill the even playing field of the internet and invention

PEOPLE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!

Do you dislike Congress like the other 85%+ of Americans? Well then look at how your Congress-person conducts themselves.

If you don't like it, vote against them in the next cycle! Stop re-electing these idiots!

IF you voted incumbents out during the PRIMARIES the entire House with its 10% approval rating would be gone long before the general election. And it would be so non partisan if done across the board. THEN decide between the New Guys in the general. I"M willing to do it, how about you

@ David-1023706

I've been on board the "throw them all out" bandwagon before they were even popular ;P

On top of throwing out useless stooge incumbants, just as importantly, research whom you choose to vote-in. One need look no further than the howling ignoramuses that the Tea Party elected to see what happens when voters don't do their homework.

Anyway, Koch Industries owns the Tea Party now, so at least they'll just slowly blend in as a bridge between the NeoCon corporate-shills and the superstitious-bigots of the Religious Right.

Vote for Ron Paul, make a difference!

I would like to remind people that when the Obamacare package came to a vote, it was hurried, without the participants even reading or understanding the full content. Furthermore, for those concerned citizens wanting to express their standpoint on the issue, many of our illustrious representatives went to ground like the rodents that they are. E-mail, telephone all suddenly malfunctioned and the voters were unable to express their views prior to the vote taking place, and afterwards, many of us same said voters were treated to political blogs and statements via email telling us why they felt things were in our best interest instead of actually representing our best interest in the first place, or even caring to know what we thought our best interest was. Alot of politicians lost their seats over that, and evidently the message was lost on the others who feel, that as usual, their positions make them immune to the will of the people.

@ Sue-3329001

Well said +1

The scary thing is that they ARE largely immune to the will of the people.

They come from gerrymandered districts, and have tons of lobbying dollars to effectively mute their competition by virtue of spamming the channels of communication with either promotions or attack ads against opposition.

The mush-heads at home that vote purely by what they see on TV just follow in tow like good little sheeple.

There was a mad scramble in Illinois after the 2010 elections and many Democrats lost seats to conservatives....however, based upon census data (also in 2010) the Democratic governor as allowed to redistrict to his heart's content. The justification was based upon population information and shifts in population concentration, but the reality was insuring that those newly elected conservatives would have the devil's own time trying to maintain their seats in the next election cycle. It was openly admitted that this was the agenda, and justified by previous governors having done so before.....at no point in time did the discussion even include the idea of ethics or welfare of the voters.

@ Sue-3329001

Agreed! Gerrymandering should be illegal.

Frankly, district-drawing needs to be done in a formulaic fashion that doesn't allow for human intervention.

Use the usual factors, but no more of the ridiculous spaghetti noodle-districts like we have in CA or TX.

As soon as people get involved in drawing districts, we end up with this nonsense.

I like Ron Paul because he is principled and is very good at staying on point. But Ron Paul needs to actually refine his economic hypothesis with some actual litmus tests.

First: Ron Paul wants to do away with the EPA, FDA, etc.

-->He needs to understand WHY those were created in the first place. Yes, crony-capitalism and revolving door politics are very bad and very harmful for the American people and efficient markets-alike...but to get rid of the agencies is to allow the rampant cheating, irresponsible/unethical practices, monopolization, collusion and abusive/retaliatory practices that existed before and were the driving reasons for the creation of these agencies in the first place.

I for one don't want to revisit the times of the Robber Baron-days and be paid company scrip instead of money so that I'm basically an indentured servant instead of a paid employee. NO THANKS! I also don't want to take a trial-and-error approach towards selecting medications to find out which ones work and which ones don't!

Second: Ron Paul wants to do away with the Fed

--> Getting rid of the Fed would be the economic equivalent of letting go of the steering wheel while driving 80mph on the interstate highway if we continue to use a fiat currency. If Ron Paul wants to end the Fed, he ALSO needs to quit the fiat currency and switch the US to the Gold or Silver (or other commodity) standard. But he needs to understand that there are dire repercussions from using those modes as well, and the government cannot manage itself the same way it has since Reagan if we are to go down such a road.

The Fed itself has serious problems, and its ability to straddle the public and private sector without much accountability is dangerous...they need more public oversight and accountability. They need to not be able to operate with such a level of secrecy where they look more like the Pentagon than the DMV. However, to get rid of them is to also allow the likes of China and India to ruthlessly manipulate our currency even more than they already do. The Fed, when operated responsibly can help us navigate around giant swells and troughs of economic uncertainty, to get rid of them is to remove the rudder and keel from a sailing ship

Third: Ron Paul would remove most social safety nets.

--> There needs to be a Social Security and Medicare. Government needs to act when a profit motive either does not exist or can only exist under an oppressive and inefficient monopoly (e.g. why water/power companies are heavily regulated, and why healthcare and insurance should be as well). Before these institutions, the average person that fell on hard-times faced dire circumstances and many died as a result.

Pure capitalism is very destructive in nature and doesn't favor living beings. I don't mind when it is applied in business where only the strongest and most efficiently run should survive...but to apply the same to every-day life is patently unethical.

In general, Ron Paul has a "slash and burn" mentality towards government institutions.

The areas where I agree strongly with him are on his stances of ending wars of ideology and focusing on what can be accomplished. That's a level of pragmatism that is sorely lacking in our political arena, and I understand why there are so many fervent Ron Paul supporters. But if the guy wants to really succeed, he needs to adjust his stance based historical facts and not just blind platitudes.

Seriously?...............when are you going to run for office so I can vote for you? And why don't the dolts in Washington know as much as you do? Your views on "pure capitalism" are right on. I'll bet Republicans hate you.

Ron Paul is only one man and as President he would have to find traction in both Houses to make anything happen. If elected he might just provide the shock to the system to get things moving. Especially if members of both houses were excused and sent home by the electorate. Who knows how it would all play. If he would just overturn the Patriot Act, Reform the Obama Care or dump it, and end the provisions in the Defense and Spending Act of 2012 to protect our 2nd Amendment rights that would be a great start.

Well seriously, I think you grossly underestimate Ron Paul's understanding of the facts. You might ought to take a hard look at your own.

A good place to start is to listen to his reasons for what he says, all of them.

@ SoSickoftheGop

Thanks. I'd run for office if it didn't require that I first sell my soul to wealthy private interests in order to get into any reasonable seat of influence AND continue to be a sellout in order to be able to get anything worthwhile done.

Whether or not you agree with Obama, look at how little he's been able to accomplish thanks to the number of die-hards in his opposition that will throw themselves under the bus when their financial backers say that it's better to follow them than to save the country from further havoc.

It's OK; complain about the debt while running higher deficits, refuse to cut into your sacred cows of oil and agricultural subsidies while whining about government involvement and socialism, complain about a massive government while refusing to cut lofty defense contracts and expensive wars of ideology like the War on Drugs(tm).

why don't the dolts in Washington know as much as you do

Many do...they either don't care, or they cannot get into positions where they can push forward laws that would actually improve things. The moves that I think are necessary (see my above posts) to get out of this mess are short-term political suicide for every politician that would support it.

Your views on "pure capitalism" are right on. I'll bet Republicans hate you.

Thanks. *Anecdotal evidence warning* some of my in-laws are staunch Republicans and they've debated me in the past on fiscal and social issues. They lose bitterly on the fiscal issues and now try to avoid the subject matter altogether when I'm around, and they lose on the social issues as well, but they cannot change their minds because it's ingrained in them from their upbringing that those are the superstitions and necessary prejudices that they should maintain for "national prosperity" LOL

Notsosure10

If elected he might just provide the shock to the system to get things moving. Especially if members of both houses were excused and sent home by the electorate

Sadly there's no way of knowing. Ron Paul is running for the wrong party. The GOP will never support a candidate that isn't a sycophant to the bigoted Religious Right and isn't a complete stooge for big multinational corporations like the NeoCons support.

Who knows how it would all play. If he would just overturn the Patriot Act, Reform the Obama Care or dump it, and end the provisions in the Defense and Spending Act of 2012 to protect our 2nd Amendment rights that would be a great start.

It's a lot harder to undo legislation than it is to make entirely new legislation. While it would be great to end the Patriot Act and simply add better accountability to the DHS and require that they follow the due-process clause, repealing anything like that or the 2012 Def-Spending Act would be like pulling a hen's teeth.

If Ron Paul became President, he would be blackballed by both parties. Even if there was a shakeout of the old (idiot) guard, voters still fearfully vote within the confines of their respective parties, which means that even a shakeout will result in only slightly more moderate politicians (or less as the case may be) taking their place.

IWonder-932455

Well seriously, I think you grossly underestimate Ron Paul's understanding of the facts. You might ought to take a hard look at your own.

A good place to start is to listen to his reasons for what he says, all of them.

I have. I've read his website, I've listened to his speeches and his debates. I've formed my assertions based on what I've read and listened to. I've got a number of other disagreements regarding his policies, but the main ones I've put in my prior post.

Ron Paul is like Alan Greenspan circa 1990's. Believes fervently in the virtues of an unfettered, completely efficient, free-market. The problem is that the free-market is a hypothesis with varying degrees of strenght based on what economic/financial assertions one is making in a vacuum, not an actual thing that can be achieved.

Ron Paul's rationale runs the same illogical course of stating:

-If one's neighborhood is overrun with crim

-Said neighborhood's police department is corrupt and colludes with the criminals

-Does the crime go away by removing the police department?

-->obviously the crime does not ...and neither would corrupt business practices and collusion

*crime

Term Limits would help stop the Collusion and Corruption?

@ US citizen-701707

I doubt it unfortunately.

Term limits just require the lobbyists to find a new stooge to replace the older stooge they keep at the post. Furthermore, there's nothing like a lameduck stooge to feel utterly invincible since they know they are out of the game anyway.

What we need to do is increase the visibility, and re-evaluate all of the special rules that these scum use to circumvent the general political process via technicalities.

Things like:

Secret Holds, Halting appointments without cause, Shelving bills, etc.

There's nothing like shining a light on things and forcing people to put their names on official documents to make them think twice about their decisions.

Just like we see online, when faced with near complete anonymity, look at how abusive and vitriolic some people get.

"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

-Edmund Burke

Seems pretty close...I still agree.

@ Ridgelon

Absolutely agreed. Too many people don't understand the value of delayed gratification and saving. Having the discipline to save is infinitely more valuable than having the ability to earn more as far as I'm concerned!

Though I still use banks to hold onto my deposits from work and maintain a checking account for the convenience, I use a credit union because I refuse to fuel the evil that is retail-banking.

And I have made it clear with every banking institution that I've worked with that if they ever institute a charge for keeping my money in their establishment, I will pull it ALL out without hesitation and take it to one without such policies.

I wish we could get Congress to stop borrowing. I know why they don't stop, because the bill never comes due. I guess if I had a money printing press I would spend like a drunk sailor as well.

@ chaz on the rez

I contend that it is far more insidious than that.

A Congress-critter is obligated to "pay back" their constituents when they get into office. It requires joining a cabal of like-minded favor-brokers, each acting in conjunction with the others to pass bills to satisfy their sponsors at the limited expense of the US taxpayer and more at the expense of those paying into payroll taxes (as the SSI trust's un-obligated gains are borrowed against by Congress).

A friend of mine, a rich jew, advised me, when I was a lad, to only use credit to buy things that would re-sell for at least as much as they cost. Never for food, fuel, rent, etc.

As a family that has been a victim of the financial crisis on all levels, retirement savings and investments depleted, salary stagnant, real estate value down the toilet, and now unemployment.....children do not stop growing, winter doesn't go away because you don't have enough for a heating bill, you have to expend money to get to work and home and be grateful to have the work no matter the commute. It would be nice to not have to use credit, but for many families it has been forced upon them when their ability to pay for essentials has been erroded. We are not talking about the latest electronic gadgets, wide screen HD 3D TVs, fancy cars, exotic vacations, we are talking about supplies for school, clothing appropriate to the weather, heat, lights, water, sewage, rent/mortgage....all of which have increased while earnings have not. Grandma and Grandpa didn't have to pay to watch their TV or listen to their radio other than the electric to run the appliance, they didn't have to have internet access to be able to apply for jobs, keep up with assignments (many schools have children submit homework via e-mail attachments to avoid the ever popular "the dog ate my homework" or "I left it on the bus, or in the car, or on the kitchen table") Many schools also require that children type essays and bring them in on zip drives or forward them directly to the teachers instead of using pen and paper. Grandma and Grandpa had one telephone in the kitchen, not multiple lines with additional charges for voice mail, call forwarding etc. If the line was busy, you called back and if somebody didn't answer by the 7th or 8th ring, you called back later. There are a whole lot of bills in the household that didn't exist for our frugal grandparents. And our grandparents didn't have to pay for trash removal and garbage stickers and special, approved bags and containers. Our grandparents didn't have to pay for the lawn clippings and yard waste to be taken away separately. Our grandparents used to be able to make a little money by recycling their bottles, cans, paper etc., not having to pay for the salvage service to provide them with special containers to sort and separate. While it would be nice to emulate their frugality....some of us are already doing that and still not being able to make ends meet.

How dare you insist that banks be competitive!

Don't you know that the way to achieve the American Dream is to ensure that the most wealthy and powerful stay that way at the expense of the taxpayer?

@ tedcrawford

Um, Ireland's economy is in the crapper, just in case you were wondering.

But in any sense, I like how you use the conduit with which many large US businesses utilize legal money-laundering tactics to avoid paying taxes in the US as an example of economic resilience and resolve.

I'm sure the stooges that helped Bernie Madoff offshore a ton of his ill-gotten wealth are weathering this financial crisis just fine as well! I'm sure the banks in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland are also doing fantastically!

Complain to me about the level of corporate taxation when the big players complaining are actually paying ANYTHING CLOSE to their corporate tax rate!

Very true.....my husband lost a job that was outsourced to Ireland.

Victim

You might need to change the color of your glasses. You n=make it sound like Obama just walked into the picture. Don't forget that he was elected in a political fight which as I recall lasted two years. He did not just "enter".

What do you mean by changing the color of my glasses? what does that even mean? Republicans caused this problem PERIOD.

I sound to me like no one could change your opinion. Have a good day.

victim of freetrade come on most of us are really tired of the black man thing.... I'am white and voted for obama so come on with the oh poor me crap... very honestly i have had it with all the everyone hates him because he is black... 53 %of americans voted for him so why is the black issue even there??? The story is about the fed not raising interest rates so how did you get the black issue??? people like you won't ever let the race card go will you???

Sorry victim but you are a victim of the liberal media, check the records. Fact is law are created and passed by Congress just signed by the president and the laws that caused todays problems are the brain storms of Democrat control Congress. This was also the same Congress that chose not to submit let alone try to pass a budget, in truth I guess they can honestly say they did not spend over their budget this way.

Keep being a victim or learn to think and research matters for yourself because if you haven't figured it out bad news sells and the media knows that keeping the Democrats in charge grantees them plenty to write about. Don't believe me look at any old school newspaper or msn home page wherever you get your news and count the negative vs the positive news stories. It5 would be even more so but they figured out that people would get to depressed and quit looking if it was all negative.

FYI, Democrats want to help the poor by giving they money, food, health care; Republics want to help the poor by getting the skills and jobs so they can provide the rest for them self. Again chose victim of dependence or the opportunity of self-reliance and freedom.

If the US is better off, then why did my retirement savings and investment evaporate to the point that it doesn't even equal what I actually put into it to save for all those horrible conservative, Republican years? Why is it that I haven't received any sort of pay raise-even though I work harder and for more hours in several years? Why is it that my insurance costs for everything have increased, but actually, what the insurances cover and pay for has decreased. Why do I have to pay larger deductibles and co-payments than ever before? How is it that even though I didn't buy my property in the last decade, and even though I didn't purchase above my means, and even though I have never had a single problem with mortgage payments on time...my house is worth less than when I bought it???? Why is it that politicians continually tell me how they are going to help me, but I am never, absolutely never, eligible for any of the "helping"?

@ Sue-3329001

hrm...there's a lot on this one.

If the US is better off, then why did my retirement savings and investment evaporate to the point that it doesn't even equal what I actually put into it to save for all those horrible conservative, Republican years?

Because if you were invested even remotely in financial sector, a lot of the gains that you saw in the years that there were gains were either directly, or indirectly tied to fraud being committed against the taxpayer by the private sector pushing mountains of bad loans onto Fannie and Freddie. The only thing that was real about those years were the billions in executive bonuses and liquidated stock options packages from those earnings reports before the first shoe dropped.

Why is it that I haven't received any sort of pay raise-even though I work harder and for more hours in several years?

There are a lot of going theories, but the ones I think hold the most water relate to a combination of the "Stong Dollar" fiscal policy and its relation to currency manipulation, taxation, and global competition from nations that purposely undervalue their currency and dump labor on the international markets. Also don't forget a reduction in competition in many different domestic industries.

Why is it that my insurance costs for everything have increased, but actually, what the insurances cover and pay for has decreased. Why do I have to pay larger deductibles and co-payments than ever before?

Pretty much due to a lack of competition and very little regulation with regard to how much a company can charge on a product/service that is directly correlated to ones survival. Imagine how much you could charge for water and power if the government didn't adequately regulate it?

How is it that even though I didn't buy my property in the last decade, and even though I didn't purchase above my means, and even though I have never had a single problem with mortgage payments on time...my house is worth less than when I bought it?

Because an artificial shortage developed from banks making loans to people that wouldn't ordinarily qualify if the bank had to actually hold the loan to term instead of spinning it off at a discount into the secondary markets allowed for demand to rise dramatically.

With all finite supplies, when demand increases, prices will climb because of the increasing possibility that there will be some consumers that will not get a product, and the incentive is to pay more to ensure receipt. It's why Demand curves slope down and why Supply curves slope up with regard to price/quantity.

The prices in your neighborhood were inflated. The supply of new homes on the market could not keep up with demand and prices rose further. The post-crash price represents the price that meets the now-over-supply and remaining aggregate regional demand for your home and based on comps in the area. Your home dropped in value because there are more options for potential buyers to choose from AND the price dropped further because there are fewer eligible buyers in general.

Your home's intrinsic value may have stayed the same, but the market follows market-value, not intrinsic value. Thus your home is only as valuable as the most a buyer is willing to pay for it.

Why is it that politicians continually tell me how they are going to help me, but I am never, absolutely never, eligible for any of the "helping"?

Because it's lip-service to get you to vote for them. They don't want to actually help anyone with these services...that costs money that they don't have. So they move the goalposts to the point where only the completely destitute, irresponsible, and outright cheaters are the only ones still receiving support.

Beware statistics.

Just like U3 unemployment, the current measure of inflation is being utterly gamed.

True inflation needs to be measured as a change in CPI and USD-PPP against our largest trading partners and compared against similarly constructed economies.

The current measure of inflation is indeed low, but that is because it is being supported on the backs of the taxpayers by the Fed buying back US T-bills at an increasing rate and offering an overnight rate of virtually nothing for a large lending institution to shore-up their liquidity ratios.

Smoke and mirrors. But at least you're making money hand over fist if you can buy debt wholesale and create your own while using it to play in the open market for instant arbitrage! After all, if your hurdle rate on your funds is 0%, it's not hard to get anything higher than that when trading in billions/second on the open market.

It just sucks for the rest of us that actually have to rely on the money itself and not be able to surf the marginal changes that it makes courtesy of the Bank of Uncle Sam.

Bernanke does. He's trying to maintain the status-quo. The problem is that the amount of resources necessary to keep the US from switching back into a manufacturing and innovation economy vs an outsourcing/service-based economy is becoming increasingly hard to maintain.

If you're a big government spend-thrift, a Wall Street trader, or an outsourcing mogul, you've invested a large amount of capital on the notion that the US$ would remain artificially high and its PPP would remain just as high as well.

Eventually the amount of force necessary to keep turning that crank will cause it to snap right off and unwind the entire spring until the economy settles into a proper equilibrium. But the big rats still need time to flee the sinking ship with their spoils, while many many more are happy with the cheese they are making and don't want to let it end...damn the rest of us in the process...but since you and I don't write legislation for the pigs in government, we're just fodder anyway.

...who wants another war?

"then we are in deep doo-doo"

I think we are in it now. It seems like everybody is grabbing for something to which they may not be entitled. Because of human nature, we will never return to the original American Dream. It is history.

They are doing it so they can STEAL money! They lost 7 billion alone on their GM TARP program and they are going to keep doing this operation twist (QE3), QE1, QE2, and next up QE4.............until they get every cent of it and more back out of the stock and bond holders!

I am in a bad mood today but forget $5/ gallon gas. Try maybe seven. And, forget "dozen" We will be buying them one at a time.

Andy Ritch: I agree 100%

Southern Il

At least there are two of us on the same page. Thank you. My day is already better.

Make that 3.

Make that 4...I was busy elsewhere on the vine and missed the roll call

Exactly........and both political parties made sure that most americans would NOT be able to take advantage of these low rates!

Which proves that your government doesn't give a rat's behind about your welfare, but rather that you be a good little worker unit producing tax dollars but not any wealth of your own.

Never going to happen. In fact experts say the collection process will get worse.

They may need our help and they need to step up and become politically involved....but they also need to honor the commitments that they made when they took those loans. I don't think that any of us who required student loans to finance higher education had an easy time paying them back, but that discipline is the same thing that allowed us to purchase homes and cars and honor those commitments as well. We cannot fight the battles for them alone, they have to take some ownership and pay attention to their government instead of substituting Mommy and Daddy for government in telling them how to live their lives.

RAJ PATEL, If you are the Author, writer, activist and academic ? If so very good work. Keep it up.

The Value of Nothing Book is a excellent publication. I recommend anybody read it.

Didn't JFK try to fix this loanshark stranglehold that the fed has on the US and actually the rest of the world? That executive order 11110 is still valid as far as I know. We should hammer our congressmen to start putting it to work again.

Wonder if that is why they killed him?

http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/executiveorder11110.htm

We wouldn't need Ron Paul the kook if they would just use what Kennedy gave us.

Hey, you know I'd quit harassing and making fun of the teanuts, oops, excuse me, the Tea Party, if they would start hanging little copies of executive order 11110 from their hat brims instead of those funny looking tea bags. I thought getting the fed off our asss was one of the things they wanted, and maybe the fix has been right there all the time. Who needs Ron Paul? Right on dude. And if congress stood up to enforce it our president wouldn't have to go hide from those magical bullets.

Well he was wrong about that. From what I can tell what we have now is neither deflation or inflation. The money supply is staying steady as people pay off their debts, the Fed and Treasury are creating an equal amount. We have a money supply in this country of around $53 trillion most of that is debt.

What the Fed and Treasury have done is to stop massive deflation, deflation which needs to happen. Much of the country should go bankrupt.

Man I was gonna light you up.....but then I had the realization that folks have probably left this one alone for a reason......YOU JUST CANT FIX STUPID! Have a great day!

Wrong. Food, commodities, gas are in hyperinflationary mode. Ron Paul would be a good President if he had a good foreign policy and a little warhawk in him.

You critics of President Obama are witty. Where did you learn your cutting political satire? First or Second grade? Facts don't lie: The GOP has caused two Great Depressions and the Democrats have had to save their bacon both times. The sad fact is the current GOP candidates cling to the same failed policies, i.e., lets cut all regulations and lets lower taxes on the "job creators." "No, no, no I've seen this movie before."--Bob Dylan. A quote that might be more fitting and appropriate for you: "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. "--Gomer Pyle, PFC