As Conference Ends, Economists Give Clashing Views.

[elleng]

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — Most visitors to Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park are drawn to the peak that gave the park its name — a 13,776-foot monolith that dominates the sweeping skyline.

But for the economists and central bankers who gathered in a lodge here for the past three days, attention fell on a more mundane but consequential matter: the often conflicting relationship between unemployment and inflation. How, they argued, should central banks manage their control of interest rates to strengthen job markets without igniting inflation?

The Federal Reserve's annual conference opened with Chair Janet Yellen suggesting that the U.S. economy, the world's biggest, still needs help in the form of ultra-low rates and that U.S. inflation has yet to become a problem. Though unemployment is down, Yellen said other gauges of the job market appear less than healthy. These include tepid pay growth; many people jobless for more than six months; millions of part-timers who want full-time work; and many people without jobs who have stopped looking for one.

Yet the Fed is under rising pressure from inflationary "hawks" to start raising rates or risk having inflation veer out of control. Their critics, the "doves," who worry more about a still-subpar job market, say it's too soon to act.

Here are excerpts from Associated Press interviews with attendees at the conference about the friction between inflation and the job market — and whether Yellen is striking the right balance.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/08/23/us/ap-us-jackson-hole-economists-react.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=WireFeed&module=pocket-region&region=pocket-region&WT.nav=pocket-region&_r=0

[AndyTiedye]

1. Used to be, Low Interest Rates Caused Companies to Hire More People, Now they Buy Other Companies

When the easy money goes to mergers and acquisitions, that does not create jobs, it makes them go away.

[yallerdawg]

2. We are in a nightmare economically.

Most like Japan's lost decade.

We have no job growth, stagnant wages and deceptive inflation. While wages remain the same, tell me our costs haven't risen? You think electricity, heating, air conditioning, gas and diesel are flat? You think food is flat? You think housing is flat? No inflationary pressures?

Have you noticed how price is still the same, but that bottle is smaller, that portion is smaller, that candy bar is smaller? When inflation 'suddenly' rears it's ugly head, we'll have just another reason why the American economy is in the toilet.

I hope we all know the real reason -- thank you, Republicans and the job creators who own them! Treasonous greedy selfish inhuman monsters.

Well, we can replace these craven cretins with a few more Democrats, stop the obstruction, and get back to Keynesian economics. The stock market and Wall Street had their day - all safe now and bailed out - now we must make it our turn.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Indeed. eom

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Anyone stating or believing the

Economic crisis is over is brainwashed or doing the brainwashing.

People are suffering. Children are hungry.

I see it every day in my community.

"Sleep hungry", is a thing and it breaks my heart while it crushes the hope of any quality of life parents once wished for their children.

Love, Peace and the Righteous Fight!
~ Lmsp

[AdHocSolver]

5. The Federal Reserve is run by and for the benefit of the banks and Wall Street.

The low interest rates set by the Fed are designed to give free use of depositors' assets at zero cost to enable Wall Street to finance mergers and buyouts of once competitive businesses.

This allows the new "owners" to layoff "redundant" workers so as to reduce costs and increase profits.

Low interest rates on deposits coupled with high interest rates on credit card balances enable the transfer of assets from the middle class to the banks and their Wall Street "owners".

(A bank pays 0.1 percent on a depositor's CD or savings account while collecting interest of 14 percent on a credit card balance and the bank realizes a gain of 140 times its cost: .14/.001 = 140)

The argument between the so-called "hawks" and "doves" at the Fed is a total fraud.

There is plenty of inflation eating the assets of the 99 percent while the 1 percent gets wealthier at an increasing rate.

Keeping interest rates low on bank deposits, while keeping interest rates high on credit card balances, is the opposite of what should be done to spur the economy.

The net result of Fed policy is to reduce demand (the ultimate driver of the economy) by keeping money away from those who would spend it, the middle class, and transferring the money to the one percent who keep it out of circulation by hoarding it.

In fact, Fed policy is just another aspect of trickle-down economics.

Just because the average person doesn't completely understand how they are getting ripped off doesn't mean that it isn't happening.