Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve needs to raise interest rates soon and often

[Yavin4]

Higher borrowing costs are the only checks on Trump and the congress from exploding the national debt to pay for tax cuts for the rich and wars abroad.

[Wounded Bear]

1. They won't give a shit...

remember, deficits only matter when there is a D in the White House. Trump is the King of Debt.

No problem.

[Yavin4]

3. True, but they won't be able to run from it. They will have to own it.

Higher rates also slows down the economy.

[Wounded Bear]

17. They will only "own" it if the fucking media lays it on the line...

and tells the truth for a change. Repubs have been given a pass on their bullshit for years. I'm not real hopeful, though there have been some promising signs with how they've quoted Trump lately.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. You're not kidding!

[Dawson Leery]

2. 5% should be the target.

The deficit is under control and must be kept that way. Raise those rates!

[Yavin4]

4. Yep. Take the credit card away from the affluenza teens in the WH and Congress. n/t

[Dawson Leery]

5. Discount and Funds rate must go up too.

Cut off the excess cash.

[Hoyt]

6. I get the point, but don't think that idea is good for anyone in this economy.

I despise Trump as much as anyone, but sending us and the world back into a high unemployment recession is not the way to fight the pig.

[Dawson Leery]

7. ...at the same time, Donnie cannot blow up the deficit.

GDP and debt are equal. We do not have much room to move at this point.

[Yavin4]

9. With low interest rates, Trump and the Republicans can cut taxes on the wealthy, engage in wars,

and de-regulate us into another massive credit bubble. All of which would damage us much more than slightly higher unemployment.

It's fine to have low rates when reasonable people run the government, but when lunatics are at the helm with no one to check them is the reason why the Fed was created in the first place.

[GummyBearz]

12. They can do that no matter what the borrowing rates are

Think about it. Higher rates actually bring in more interest money from foreign bond buyers who want US treasuries. Also hurts the economy in general. I do agree rates should be increased slowly, but your logic for doing so is absurd

[Yavin4]

15. Higher rates are inevitable no matter what. Even if Hillary had won, they'd go up.

The difference here is that the Republicans want to take advantage of low rates to borrow in order to pay for their massive tax cuts and a new war in the Middle East.

The Fed is the only independent body that can put a damper on their plans. It would at least give the Dems some ammunition to tailor the tax breaks for the middle class instead of the wealthy.

[GummyBearz]

16. It doesn't matter is my main point

The US borrowing money from itself... what do the rates matter? There was discussion between serious economists about how the US could just print a trillion dollar coin and then spend it in order to solve debt problems/create money velocity and inflation back a couple years ago. Raise the rates to 20% and they can still print that coin.

[Dawson Leery]

13. The bubble will be horrible and will come quickly if Donnie gets his way.

The economy has been growing for over 7 years now.

[Hoyt]

14. Significantly higher rates will shut down construction and throw us into another recession with

lots of unemployment. If the debt goes up, interest rates will naturally rise.

[roamer65]

10. People should be getting out of the US dollar at this point.

[Yavin4]

11. OPEC is cutting production so oil is on the rise

The dollar is safe. However, you cannot let the Republicans take advantage of that and lower interest rates.