Comments by "DrScopeify" (@drscopeify) on "Warren Buffett on the Fed: Jerome Powell has been terrific" video.

  1. Listen, the inflation rate for the last 10 years was around 1% so they had no option. If this were to fall in to deflation you risk entering a trap like Japan where people stop buying because prices keep falling. The real problem was cheap goods from China and Free trade which kept inflation too low. This was a Government policy by keeping free trade with China going for too long, so not a FED error. It's easier to deal with inflation then deflation which is why the target inflation rate is 2% and not -2% and also it's a tool to erase old wealth to make people have to go out and work. In the USA it's not that hard to work just a few years, save up cash, buy a cheap house in a cheap corner and just retire early. a very resourceful person can play the system so inflation helps prevent that a little by making people need more people as time moves on. It's the same in every country in the world so we are not unique here, only Japan is playing on another level but that is just one country out of 200+
    1
  2. It's a hard call, the decade had many years of inflation in the 1% area which the FED got scared so tried to get inflation to rise up. This was due to China pushing out cheap goods and free trade deals all caused low inflation and asset prices rose too much. This was a 2 part failure, cheap good from China and free trade. We needed a better balance. Now we are starting to go the opposite way, China is closing the doors and we are starting to build tariffs on trade so inflation is waking up from a long sleep. Time will tell if this is long term or not.
    1
  3.  @rdw1968  The problem is that some people may never get back inside. Age is a major issue many companies don't even want to hire people in their 40s let alone older. A lot of tech companies its 20s and 30s and 40s is old farts. I know people in 2008 that lucky for them saved up a lot of cash and had to live 5+ years without working but realized the risks and were set up for it but today with record house prices once again like 2008, it's ugly out there.
    1