Ultra-low interest rates are among the biggest impediments currently preventing genuine economic growth in the U.S. economy.
By committing to keeping them near zero for the next two years, the Fed has actually lengthened the time Americans will now have to wait before a real recovery begins. Artificially low interest rates are the root cause of the misallocation of resources that define the modern American economy. As a direct result, Americans borrow, consume, and speculate too much, while we save, produce, and invest too little.
This reckless policy, designed to facilitate government spending and appease Wall Street financiers, will continue to starve Main Street of the capital it needs to make real productivity-enhancing investments.
American investment capital will continue to flow abroad, denying local business the means to expand and hire. In addition, such an inflationary policy drives real wages lower, robbing Americans of their purchasing power. The consequence is a dollar in free-fall, dragging down with it the standard of living of average Americans.
Until interest rates are allowed to rise to appropriate levels, more resources will be misallocated, additional jobs will be lost, government spending and deficits will continue to grow, the dollar will keep falling, consumer prices will keep rising, and the government will keep blaming our problems on external factors beyond its control.
As the old adage goes, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
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Peter Schiff`s comments on the economy, stock markets, politics and gold. Schiff is the renowned writer of the bestseller Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse.
