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Balancing Inflation and Growth Part 7 of 13
At the same time, I am fully aware that the FOMC must be careful to not undermine that recuperative process. Here, of course, I refer to the potential harm to the consumer and the business and future trading software financial sectors alike by unwittingly allowing the perception to take hold that, as the New York Times editorialized in its lead front page article last Thursday, the Federal Reserve, signaled its readiness to bolster the economy with cheaper money even though inflation is picking up speed.
Talk of cheap money makes my skin crawl. The words imply a debased currency and inflation and the harsh medicine that inevitably must be administered to purge it. So you should not be surprised that I consider the perception that the Fed is pursuing a cheap-money strategy and commodity trading education, should it take root, to be a paramount risk to the long-term welfare of the U.S. economy.
I believe the Times overstates its case. Chairman Bernanke made clear in his congressional testimony last week that we are monitoring inflationary pressures and expectations closely. And yet, I understand the source of the Times sentiment. In a globalized capital market where money is free to move anywhere it pleases, there is scant tolerance for even the slightest whiff of inflation. Since the January FOMC meeting, longer-term rates, including those on fixed mortgages, have risen rather than followed the federal funds rate downward.
US Economy and Globalization Part 15 of 17
The concept behind core inflation measuresseeking to eliminate noise and focus on signalby disregarding food and energy prices altogether may be a sound practice in The Amazing Stealth Forex Trading System a relatively closed world with a predictable sense of the number of consumers and consumer patterns. This is what we had for a couple of generations during the Cold War era, led by an ultra-dominant U.S. economy; eliminating food and energy to silence a significant source of noise made sense in this structure.
However, a tectonic shift has occurred. Globalization, rapid acceleration of technological innovation and a series of key geopolitical events have created an open economy infinitely more complex and decidedly more unpredictable. The world economy now incorporates China, India and the former captives of Soviet and Southeast Asian communism, and their caloric and BTU intake patterns are converging toward ours as they grow richer. Three billion people have entered the world’s market, and they are ready to work, ready to innovate and ready to shop. As a result, we are undergoing a sustained period of Online Trading for Financial Freedom fundamental economic change that is forcing us to reexamine energy and food price movements through different lenses.