John McCain: Fed Should Make the Crisis Worse

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet/362487/john_mccain_fed_should_make_the_crisis_worse

John McCain: Fed Should Make the Crisis Worse
posted by Christopher Hayes on 09/19/2008 @ 5:49pm


Brad DeLong is appropriately gobsmacked by this statement from John McCain:

Finally, the Federal Reserve should get back to its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation. It needs to get out of the business of bailouts. The Fed needs to return to protecting the purchasing power of the dollar. A strong dollar will reduce energy and food prices. It will stimulate sustainable economic growth and get this economy moving again...

As DeLong notes, preventing financial implosion is part of the reason we have central banks to begin with. But more than that, advocating a "strong dollar" under these circumstances is some old-school, hard money nuttiness. After donning a variety of ideological suits these last few days, McCain seems to have found his inner Andrew Mellon. It was Mellon who, on the eve of the Great Depression, cheered on the impending immiseration:

It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.

First he was channeling Hoover, now Mellon. The intellectual DNA of conservatism is, I suppose, admirably consistent.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I think McSame has reached the outer limits of his mental ability...

[babylonsister]

2. His staff surely doesn't seem to be helping him. Whazzup with that?

Maybe they want to remove themselves as far away from this travesty as possible.

[abumbyanyothername]

3. Strong Dollar??????

Wall Street abandoning McC in droves now. They realize what a complete economic idiot he is.

I might agree with the strong dollar philosophy if he said, "Starting today, we need to do everything in our individual and collective powers to completely eliminate the importation of foreign oil. If you are a two car family, sell one. If you are a one car family, pledge to leave it parked for at least one day a week (consider it a Sabbath, if you are of the the religious type). Look at your daily, habitual, transportation needs and wherever possible, even at the cost of slight inconvenience, use public transportation. My friends, we are in the vice like grip of a threat that is trying to destroy our economy, and our way of life and the threat has reached the critical level. If we don't act today, our children and grandchildren will be unable to act tomorrow. We can no longer afford the oil economy of the last 85 years. The challenge is clear, the time is now. We must act."

But no . . . he said, "The fed must save us . . . ." Can't be done John.

So long as we have a current account balance of -$785 Billion annually, the trend in the dollar is down.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Photo of McCain and Bush channeling Herbert Hoover

[babylonsister]

5. What a weird picture. Ewwww. nt