With the Senate’s recent confirmation, Janet Yellen will soon become the most powerful woman in the world. When she takes over the reins of the Federal Reserve from Ben Bernanke on February 1st, she will become the 15th Fed Chairman and first woman to hold the position. And as I’ve said before, she’s the right woman for the job. At least by the standards set by the position.
Mitt Romney said during the 2012 presidential campaign: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”
Can there really be any doubt that it needs fixing?
Don’t expect the government to provide any reliable numbers. The biggest federal poverty program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) pays 27 million taxpayers $60 billion in cash. But like Section 8 housing vouchers and Medicaid, EITC payments are excluded when the government totes up who is poor and who is not.
Steve Horwitz chimes in on the discussions on poverty and inequality here. He notes that the competitive market is what reduced poverty in the US. It is the War on Poverty that actually prevents the poor from making economic progress. Then he offers three great suggestions for helping the poor out of poverty, including ending the War on Drugs.
Mark Thornton will participate in an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session on Reddit today at 4PM Eastern time.
UPDATE: Here is the discussion archive.
Amazing! According to a Reuters Report, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York William Dudley admitted that the Fed does not know how Quantitative Easing policies work to help the economy and that they don’t have a well developed model of the economy that incorporates a “realistic” financial sector.
In Australia, Judith Sloan points out that the “prices” for health care services set by state adjuncts are not really functioning prices at all:
The Daily Caller reports:
