Unintended Consequences

re: Unintended Consequences

haverwench — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:50:42 GMT

Oh, and one other thing: what does printing more money have to do with lowering interest rates? Both of them are policies that will have an inflationary effect (increasing the money supply means each dollar has less value, while lowering interest rates encourages spending and thereby drives up prices), but the former doesn't lead directly to the latter. The way you lower interest rates is to lower the federal funds rate, and they've already cut that pretty much to the bone.

re: Unintended Consequences

haverwench — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:45:13 GMT

Begging your pardon, but what is the basis for your claim that "Anything they try to do will only make it worse"? It seems to me that the fact that *one* type of economic intervention failed in the past hardly constitutes proof that *every* type of intervention will inevitably fail. For example, states could adjust their sales tax to exempt a greater variety of essential goods and services. I don't favor this approach with gas taxes (since high prices discourage consumption, and that is in itself a good thing as far as the environment is concerned), but other strategies might help ease the burden there, such as increasing subsidies for mass transit or providing resources to make it easier for people to carpool, commute by bicycle, etc. Of course, all this isn't cheap, and governments are feeling the financial squeeze too. But I do believe governments at all levels can and should look for the most cost-effective strategies to help hard-pressed, hard-working individuals and families, rather than just throwing up their hands and saying, "Oh well, anything we do to help will just make it worse."

re: Unintended Consequences

cariboubill — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:51:07 GMT

Words of wisdom. Thanks for a great website

...Bill

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