The original goal was to stabilize the economy. With respect to wages maybe they’ve done too good of a job?
Ultimately I don’t think capitalism works long-term without vastly broadening the shareholder class. If the interests of shareholders were the interests of the public at large, everything would be groovy. CEOs would see their careers go up in flames for doing things like poisoning water tables, lying about it, and hiring bogus research firms to come up with phony science to support the lies.
Mismatched incentives are at the root of so many of our problems. We shouldn’t be surprised when sociopaths end up running everything when we set the system up to heavily reward sociopathic behavior.
I found this podcast helpful on the origins of Fed rate targeting
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/11/30/672366380/episode-879-the-secret-target
The Fed does not care about the stock market.
Indeed, they care so little that here is a story about the extraordinary efforts they made to prevent a stock market collapse in 2008.
http://archive.fortune.com/2008/12/12/magazines/fortune/3days_full.fortune/index.htm
You realize a financial collapse is not the same as a stock market collapse?
The Fed is a bank. Of course they care about what happens to banks.
I do. You realize they’re not completely independent or unrelated events? The Fed does not care about the stock market is a stupid view. The Fed can’t care about the economy without caring about the stock market.
Well, the Fed certainly affects the economy, and the economy affects the stock market.
But the Fed’s economic predictions are not based on stock movements, and their targets do not consider stock prices. I mean, they literally raised rates in the middle of a market crash just a few months ago.
This is certainly true.
I’m glad we agree on something!
This thread argument is so tame compared to so many others I’ve viewed recently 'round here. I like it.
Not tax related, but here’s as good a place as any.
Cool, makes me feel better about the big tax bill I just paid.
Since the large retail company I work for publicly reported their holiday earnings, pretty comfortable saying: I work with these numbers, and our data follows what was reported. No layoffs (yet), but no additional headcount until further notice, and a bunch of cost-saving policies are being spun up quickly.
The usual everyone come back with 10% cost reductions by next week drill?
Let’s start by cutting executive compensation since they lead the company and if revenue is down, well…
I know. Jose Canseco and I will bag a Bigfoot before that happens.
You know, one of the most annoying things I see with execs is when the CEO takes a noble stand when the company’s finances are in the can, and he declares he will take only $1 in salary the next year. Really? How about giving back all your stock options!
The thing I always loved was how they’d give you budget guidance to find 10% expense reductions without adversely impacting service levels and revenue. So you’d do that. Then something bad would happen 3 months later, and they’d ask you (again) to find 10% expense reductions without adversely impacting service levels and revenue. I always felt like if I found what they wanted, they’d look at me and say what, you were holding out on us before?
Then next year they’d ask for the same thing again. It’s a farce.
I just filed my taxes and it looks like my overall tax burden was reduced by about 15% compared to the previous year…but given that I’m looking to buy a home soonish I think I will flip to being a big loser by this time next year given the limits around SALT deductions :|
Either way, I’m happy for this year at least your taxes went down instead of up. Some of us should be getting something for this multi-trillion dollar hole we’re going to have to dig ourselves out of eventually.
<clears throat>
Please allow me to say this clearly and succinctly:
FUCK THE GODDAMNED MONEY-FUCKING REPUBLICANS!
Also, and with just about as much emotion:
FUCK GODDAMNED TRUMP FOR BEING THEIR BRAINLESS TOOL!
Yeah. Last year I got about $1500 back from the state of Virginia and owed about $2000 in Federal taxes. That’s pretty good planning on my part – I’m not one of those guys that wants to give the government a free loan for a year and get a massive tax return.
This year, I got about $1500 back from the state of Virginia, but I owe just shy of $8000 to the Feds. Eight goddamned kay. I was expecting my taxes to go up this year due to where I live, but I wasn’t expecting what I owed to QUADRUPLE.
Ugh. Looking a bit deeper into it, I’m in the boat that most others are in: My paycheck increased due to the scam the GOP pulled of reducing my withholding amount without my consent, and it was a pretty decent amount – about $400 a month between my wife and myself. Of course we spent most of that money over the course of the year (mostly on my kids’ college in lieu of taking out a loan). If I had put that money aside, I’d have the cash on-hand to pay this stupid tax bill.
But of course the real horror here is that I will have seen my taxes go up by roughly $2000 this year (after everything is re-balanced) and the American people are getting NOTHING for it. All that cash is going to people making more money than me (and I make a good amount); none of it is going to the treasury to be use on anything for the nation.