Change Management International - Robert Ian

Fed Proposes "Unconventional Tools"

One of the major stories this week was the supposed disagreement, or stalemate, coming out of the Federal Reserve's annual policy retreat at Jackson Hole, WY. Very little substance was reported about this meeting. The only discussion that emerged was that the Fed had internal disagreements about whether they should provide more quantitative easing to help prevent deflation.

Significant attention was given to the "unconventional tools" Ben Bernanke is considering. The main tool under consideration is having the Fed buy more assets, like treasuries, to lower market interest rates and keep them low for an even greater period of time. This is direct monetization of the debt. This is something the Fed has hidden, obfuscated and outright denied when challenged about publicly in recent years. Those who suggested such things have not always been taken seriously. Now the Fed is announcing such measures as official policy with little or no fanfare, and definitely no outrage, in the media.

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Central Planning: More, More, More Gives Us Less, Less, Less - Freedom

From every corner of the news media and every corner of the internet we continually hear one story after another about the erosion of individual freedoms on multiple fronts throughout the country, and in large part, around the world. The enemy of these freedoms is centralized planning and authority. Whether it is healthcare, Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, big banks, little banks and every other sector of the economy where the Fed, the Treasury, The Congress and the President continue to meddle, and think more market intervention, more government control and more centralized planning is the solution. Well, the solution to what? Problems caused by: more market intervention, more government control and more centralized planning, in the first place.

It's a vicious cycle and a common mistake. When you start essentially with a free market and individual freedoms, it's sometimes difficult to see the incremental restrictions that pile up after decades of legislation and political favors. Then all of a sudden it's plain as day, and the cumulative threat to personal freedom from decades of unnoticed legislation rears its ugly head, and freedom is suddenly staring into the abyss. The abyss is before us, and we are staring into it. The question is: who will blink first.

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How We Could Have Solved The Real Healthcare Crisis

One of the economic subjects we have not discussed at great length is healthcare. Or rather national healthcare as passed by Congress in March. Over 2000 pages of regulations were passed that, in many cases, have absolutely nothing to do with healthcare, and everything to with concentrating financial power in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many.

For years, national healthcare was sold as a solution to provide insurance for the estimated 40-50 million Americans who did not have health insurance or could not afford it. Many people have suffered without healthcare. Many people have been financially devastated because they could not afford to keep their health insurance after losing a job, especially when an individual, private health insurance plan, can cost as much, or more, than a typical monthly mortgage.

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