Money As Cheap As Sand On A Beach
A lot of people seem to think that if the Fed had just started fighting inflation a little earlier, we wouldn’t have seen the rapidly rising prices that continues today. The mistake, they say, was thinking inflation was transitory. This problem didn’t start last year, or even with the pandemic. This problem was decades in the making.
Year after year of cheap money was the basis of the issue. For ten years, Wall Street drank cheap money, and it will eventually result in another financial crisis.
Look no further than the federal government. Over the past ten years, it has increased the national debt by trillions of dollars. Recently, it exceeded $31 trillion. Janet Yellen claimed a year ago that the large debt wasn't an issue because of the low interest rates. Well, they are no longer low. This is a perfect illustration of how cheap money encouraged making poor choices.
The Federal Reserve Raises Rates
The Fed announced on Wednesday that it was raising its benchmark federal funds target 75 basis points. This is the fourth straight hike of this size, making this by far the biggest streak of rate increases since the Fed began explicitly targeting the overnight interbank borrowing rate. It brings the target up to a range of 3.75 percent and four percent, around where the effective fed funds rate was back in January of 2008.
Back then, however, the Fed was cutting rates. The last time the Fed hit this level on the way up was back in the fall of 2005. In that cycle, the target topped out at 5.25 percent in the summer of 2006 and stayed there for nearly a year.
The benchmark federal funds target was increased by the Fed by 75 basis points on Wednesday. Since the Fed started specifically focusing on the overnight interbank borrowing rate, this is the fourth consecutive boost of this magnitude, making it by far the longest run of rate increases. This raises the aim to a range between 3.75 and 4 percent, which is roughly where the effective fed funds rate stood in January 2008. But at that time, the Fed was lowering interest rates. In the fall of 2005, the Fed last reached this level on its ascent. The aim reached its highest point in that cycle in the summer of 2006 and remained there for almost a year. - Breitbart
ESG Investing Gets A Lot Of Negative Press
Wall Street firms, like BlackRock, sell ESG as a way to invest on specific criteria that the political Left pushes on voters and consumers. In effect, ESG investing ensures such firms can drive up energy costs on Americans by boycotting fossil fuel companies.
In addition to BlackRock, Vanguard and many other Wall Street firms are embracing ESG, to the detriment of investors and society in general.
I have just finished an important page on our website that deals with this urgently important subject. I urge you to take the time to carefully read every word, and bookmark it for future reference.
Tony Robbins offers this advice
Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.
