Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

To be clear, I don't want to suggest that the covid money didn't cause inflation, just that at the same time that was happening the Fed was injecting an equally huge sum of money into financial markets.

The three covid bills (Trump's two and then Biden's) totaled about $5 trillion. The Fed's bond-buying program was $6 trillion over two years.

Not exactly.

Let's say the Fed bought a trillion dollars in packaged home mortgages. That becomes a debit against the Fed's balance sheet (and traditional economic theory says this injects money into the economy). But there is an off-setting credit to the Fed's balance sheet for the $ 1T. That means that money is taken out of the economy as people pay off their mortgages. The buying of bonds was the Fed's attempt to keep interest rates low. That is not the Fed's mandate

On the other hand, the Covid payouts were inflationary or very inflationary depending on the recipients' previous employment history. Paying underemployed persons $ 15.00 per hour for doing nothing (in addition to States' unemployment insurance) was purely inflationary. PPP, if forgiven, was also inflationary. If PPP had created a non-forgivable credit on the SBA's balance sheet, then it would have been far less inflationary.

And might I suggest that the Rs and Ds simply stop paying the authorized Covid largess that has not been spent? That would be a good trade-off for raising the debt limit, IMO.

[Mike]

And might I suggest that the Rs and Ds simply stop paying the authorized Covid largess that has not been spent? That would be a good trade-off for raising the debt limit, IMO.

That is a fantastic idea.

[Mike]

And why the hell is China's balloon still in the sky over Montana?

[Dr. Strangelove]

And why the hell is China's balloon still in the sky over Montana?

From what I've read it's probably already moved southeast. Supposed to be somewhere over southern missouri by tomorrow morning. Could be over Wiz's new house right now so I say take the shot.

[Dr. Strangelove]

So more seriously I've heard two things on the balloon. One, the official explanation, is that they're concerned about debris falling on someone. An alternative explanation (all speculative) is that the balloon's real mission IS to get shot down. The Chinese are more interested in seeing how we would take down an object at 60,000 feet than any spy data it could possibly be gathering. I heard Matt Gaetz of all people suggesting this but I've heard it elsewhere too.

[CGVT]

So more seriously I've heard two things on the balloon. One, the official explanation, is that they're concerned about debris falling on someone. An alternative explanation (all speculative) is that the balloon's real mission IS to get shot down. The Chinese are more interested in seeing how we would take down an object at 60,000 feet than any spy data it could possibly be gathering. I heard Matt Gaetz of all people suggesting this but I've heard it elsewhere too.

Maybe Marge can call in the Jewish Space Lasers?

52vsze.jpg

[Dr. Strangelove]

Heh

The timing's also odd because they did this right before Blinken was supposed to go to Beijing for the first in person high level talks with China since 2018. So did they time this to basically blow up those meetings?

[Mike]

It seems like it could be taken out with very conventional weapons that wouldn't reveal much of anything.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Dr. Strangelove]

As of an hour ago it was in the Kansas City area

[CGVT]

[THE_WIZARD_]

And why the hell is China's balloon still in the sky over Montana?

It's the equivalent of the wicked witch sending this message to Dorothy...

[crashcourse]

I think we are getting a lot of data from that balloon so why not leave it up there and see who its talking too.

S&P 500 wiz. I think it drops below 4000 again then I'd buy and let it sit there

Or call your new neighbor up warren

[iam416]

Can't believe I missed The Chairman saying "More than half the women in my administration are women."

I used to be able to rely on Strangelove to assiduously note very odd thing the President said, but that's changed, I guess. Probably around 2021.

But, anyway...JFC...fortunately, the man hasn't lost his fastball!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Did you miss that he said he bears no responsibility for inflation? Not quite as charming as the "half these women be women" thing