The Senate Budget Committee's new chair is an unabashed progressive and self-described democratic socialist prepared to be as "aggressive" as he possibly can with budget tactics to help Democrats and President-elect Joe Biden enact their sweeping agenda.
Under a narrow Democratic majority in the Senate, Bernie Sanders will oversee budget and spending work, including the procedural power of budget reconciliation the majority can use to evade the filibuster and pass massive bills without a single Republican vote.
‘Aggressive’: Bernie Sanders on his big plans as Budget chair
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2021, @11:08PM (11 children)
$17.5 trillion in more debt paid for by printing money out of thin air. $1.5 trillion will go to the people and $15 trillion to banks and corporations.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 20 2021, @11:13PM (10 children)
They don't need congress for that. The fed has been doing it for over 15 months. In fact, QE never really ended, it just slows a little
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 21 2021, @04:20PM (9 children)
The Fed can only lower the index interest rate, which they have done.
if you get a low interest credit card did you just print money?
Now, personally, I agree that they should have been raising interest rates while the economy was good under Obama/Trump to make savings a reasonable place to invest money.
Right now though, with unemployment worse than the great depression those low interest credit cards are paying people's bills and jacking up the interest would put them in a hole they can't dig out from.
So yes, there is room for criticizing the Fed but we should base that argument on reality, not false soundbites.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 21 2021, @05:22PM (8 children)
They are stuffing Wall Street like a goose. That's the reality
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 21 2021, @05:57PM (7 children)
It makes interest based investments uncompetitive, yes, because they have nearly no return.
This encourages people to invest elsewhere, including the Stock Market, but they're not the only beneficiary. Investing in real estate and other commodities also get a boost.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 21 2021, @06:04PM
Yes, those industries are also being propped up. All that money could be going for infrastructure, and payroll/pension protection, and including medical, instead it's going into the bureaucratic financial industry, while we hear talk of raising taxes for covid relief.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 21 2021, @06:07PM (5 children)
Sorry for the second, but I just realized, you're advocating trickle down. Why do we want to boost investment in real estate and the commodities markets? You think it will trickle down to the rest of us?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 21 2021, @07:22PM (4 children)
I'm just telling you how it is, not advocating anything. You keep saying things that are not true like "they could use that money elsewhere" but that doesn't make any sense because there is no money. All they do is set the index rate for commercial credit transactions.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 21 2021, @07:29PM (3 children)
Fine, then "index" the infrastructure. They do have the money, and it's going to the wrong places. Stop with the Hollywood accounting.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 21 2021, @07:39PM (2 children)
The government sells bonds to raise money, they don't go to fucking Capital One and take out a loan.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 21 2021, @08:15PM (1 child)
The fed is "buying", not selling.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2021, @03:24AM
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL [stlouisfed.org]