Saturday, October 15, 2011

Endless Stagnation is Bad for Banks by Yglesias

Dallas Fed Board of Directors

Minneapolis Fed Board of Directors

Philadelphia Fed Board of Directors

From Greider's Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country:
The ideological implications of the money system had to be understood on two different planes. The idea of money created through new debt offended many conservatives because, in essence, it was a forward-looking process, a social commitment to the future. Bankers were not ordinarily thought of as a progressive element in American politics, yet banking itself functioned on the premise of progress, on a working belief that reliable gambles could be made in the future. On this faith rested the process of economic growth, the financing of new ideas and ventures, of change and innovation. The folk wisdom feared debt, yet future prosperity depended on it.

The folk fears were correct in only one sense: if a society contracted too many claims against the future, if it amassed debts that the future economic effort could not possibly pay off, sooner or later it would pay the consequences.... Bankers as a consequence dwelt between two conflicting commandments: one was to be generous with the future, to take risks and make loans that businesses needed to expand and consumers needed to buy: the other was to be always prudent in the risk taking...

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