Re:WTF Happened in 1971? (2019)
by brandmeyer on Monday November 23, 2020 @07:17PM
(#25193623)
The argument is about government spending "crowding out" commercial spending. I have a very hard time believing that any government spending programs are affecting the demand for financiers' labor.
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Oh I see. Sorry I took "This free money" to mean the money flowing into finance, largely as a result of regulatory changes IIRC, rather than direct govt. spending. But it's possible I've lost the thread of what's being argued here.
Re:WTF Happened in 1971? (2019)
by brandmeyer on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @10:40AM
(#25199404)
> I took "This free money" to mean the money flowing into finance
Yeah, that's a different argument. Its arguing that low-cost finance is crowding out savings. However, in this case if you look at the savings rate, its still a little too high relative to historical averages. Of course, 2020 is nuking all of the statistics. But prior to the COVID shock, both gross and personal savings were high and climbing despite constantly juicing the markets with cheap finance.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GSAVE