Federal agencies have destroyed the separation of powers that is supposed to exist in the US legal system, so agency bureaucrats now act as investigators, prosecutors, judges, and juries.
Can the US dollar lose its global reserve position? Sure it can, but not to a country that decides to commit the same monetary follies as the Fed. Most countries are trying to out-inflate the Fed. And that's good for the Fed.
No matter what the situation, no one has the right to compel someone to act for another's benefit, and that includes forced quarantines, business closures, and expropriations of medical equipment in the name of "public health."
We are about to enter a production slowdown—a collapse, really—not because some businesses miscalculated their investments, but because government intervened drastically and without warning to shut down all businesses.
The less agile and adaptive a society is, the more severe its impotence in a crisis. Thanks to an obsessive reliance on monetary policy to fix every problem, our society has increasingly abandoned innovation and productivity.
As with current Fed policy, there would be both winners and losers if the Fed did nothing. Either way, there will be pain, but without the Fed we'd actually build the foundation for a more sound and lasting economic system.
Many economists today think it's a bad thing when companies cut costs to increase profits. But this is a good thing that limits wasteful spending while setting the stage for more investment elsewhere.
Government institutions, including central banks, have long been responsible for increases in the cost of living. But the burden often falls most on those who are just starting out in their adult lives.
The Greeks haven't saved or produced enough to justify their high standard of living compared to other countries of the world. This is a fragile bubble economy made possible by European central bankers.
The various levels of government in Canada have responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Their ill-advised solutions are to inflict economic hardship and withdraw civil liberties. The longer these authoritarian policies persist, the greater the risk to the social fabric.
