Populist Party Blog » Recession

How Inflation Breeds Recession

Populist Party Daily Updates — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:56:41 +0000

The direct cause of soaring prices is printing too much paper money; the direct cure is to stop printing it. The indirect cause of inflation is government overspending and unbalancing the budget; the indirect cure is to stop overspending and to balance the budget. FULL ARTICLE

The Fault Lines Emerge

Peter Schiff — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:42:23 +0000

Washington is telling us that our problems result from a lack of consumer spending. Therefore, the solution is for government spending to pick up the slack. However, if Americans are too broke to spend, then how can our government spend for us? The only money they have is taken from us through taxation. FULL ARTICLE

Building on a Weak Foundation

John Browne — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:05:58 +0000

Economists generally agree that, in the long term, hyperinflation does more damage to an economy than severe recession. However, recession has always made a far more potent political impact. After all, it may be difficult to notice the monthly debasement of your paycheck (inflation), but it is abundantly clear when the check suddenly stops coming (recession). Knowing this, the Administration has chosen the path of inflation. FULL ARTICLE

The Fed Did It and Greenspan Should Admit It

Populist Party Daily Updates — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:20:01 +0000

Contrary to Greenspan, we can conclude that it is not long-term rates as such that fueled the bubble but the loose monetary policy of the Fed. We can also conclude that the so-called savings glut in emerging economies had nothing to do with the last economic boom or the current economic crisis. The only institution that can set in motion the expansion of money and a false boom is the Fed. FULL ARTICLE

Sickness may be the Cure for the Economy

John Browne — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:52:33 +0000

After ignoring and downplaying the inflating credit bubble for much of his first two years in office, this week Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke emphasized, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, that no economic recovery would occur unless the financial system was restored. He was quite correct in his belated diagnosis. His prescriptions, on the other hand, are much more dubious. FULL ARTICLE

Predatory Legislators

Peter Schiff — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:33:03 +0000

Faced with a prospect of downgrading its lifestyle, the U.S. government is instead borrowing trillions of dollars to artificially inflate our deflating bubble economy. The money is being used to both expand the size of government and finance additional consumer spending. Given our financial position, this is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. FULL ARTICLE

Obama's Opening Salvo

Peter Schiff — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:37:01 +0000

In the worldview of Geithner and like-minded economists, credit, rather than savings, is the central figure in the economic equation. Therefore, he sees anything that eases the process of lending to be an effective economic policy. With such a view in mind, the centerpiece of Geithner’s plan is the commitment of up to $1 trillion to revive the collapsed market for securitized debt. In the lead up to the Crash of 2008 securitization, more than anything else, permitted Americans to borrow more than they had ever borrowed before. FULL ARTICLE

A Shadow over Obama, America, World

John Browne — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:34:07 +0000

Washington is choosing to pursue the policy of continued and ever-increasing false prosperity, financed eventually by hyper-taxation, hyper-debt and hyper-inflation accompanied by a gradually eroded standard of living. The jobs created by the Bill are by and large non-productive, and will divert resources from the private sector and rob consumers of their power to make free choices in the marketplace. FULL ARTICLE

The Ugly Truth: America's Economy is Not Coming Back

Dave Lindorff — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:20:05 +0000

Featured Post for 02/13-02/19. As a nation of consumers, and not producers, with little to offer to the rest of the world except raw materials, food crops, military hardware and bad films (none of which industries employ many people), we are headed to a recovery that will not feel like a recovery at all. FULL ARTICLE

Americans Still Believe in Santa Claus

Populist Party Daily Updates — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:14:24 +0000

Peter Schiff on the Economic Crisis that’s coming our way.

“The reason we’re in trouble is not because the housing bubble burst. We’re in trouble because it inflated in the first place. We’re in trouble because while it was inflating we were recklessly borrowing and spending money. American citizens borrowed trillions of dollars from people all around the world and we blew the money.

Now that the bills are coming due and we’re just too broke to pay them, we’re seeing an implosion in these markets. Real Estate prices are coming back down, Americans are having to stop spending, credit is contracting – none of this is the problem. This is all the solution. This is all the consequences of reckless consumption and borrowing.

What we need in this country is more savings and less borrowing. We need more production and less consumption. But everything the government is doing right now – all the economic stimuli, all the bailouts – they’re designed to perpetuate the problem, to get us deeper into debt, and all they’re doing is throwing gasoline on the fire.”