Nation’s debt will continue to drive low interest rates
Sunday’s AJC included yet another article stating the Fed has the following dual mandate: keeping prices stable and maximizing employment “Powell’s high-stakes bet: More jobs but only mild inflation,” News, May 2.
In fact, under 12 U.S.C. section 225a, the Fed is supposed to “promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.” Leaving out the last one does make the Fed’s job easier. We don’t have moderate long-term interest rates. Instead, we have historically low long-term interest rates, causing roughly half of traditional retirement investments to be unappealing, thus causing the TINA stock market’s prices to be excessive. The nation’s debt is what is and will be driving continued low rates.
Based on the article, the Fed apparently wants to see significant inflation. The Fed has claimed excluding things everybody needs (i.e. food, energy, housing) from the price index shows inflation isn’t bad. If it succeeds (and perhaps it already has), two of its three statutory objectives will be unfulfilled. Perhaps it will then do what failing government agencies do: Demand more money from Congress.
ALLEN BUCKLEY, ATLANTA
Reader: Letter misleads with statement about GOP
In “Requiring an ID is not voter suppression,” Readers Write, April 28, we are reminded that Republicans were largely responsible for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with little or no help from Southern Democrats. That is true, however, after signing the bill, President Johnson is reported to have told an aide, “I think we have just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.”
In fact, that became the focus of the GOP’s very successful “Southern Strategy” in appealing to those Democrats to realign themselves with the Republican Party. Today’s GOP has more in common with the Southern Democrats of 1964 than it does with the party of Lincoln.
KATHLEEN FOWLER, ROSWELL
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