When I was a kid, I used to play the opposite game with my friends. Everything you said had to be the opposite of what you meant. For example, if you were hungry, you’d say, “I’m not hungry.” Or if you really liked the song on the radio, you’d say, “This song sucks.”
Well, politicians play the opposite game pretty much all the time.
If a politician tells you something is black, it’s almost certainly white. And if he tells you that a policy is going to really help you out, you’re about to get royally screwed.
Now, you may say I’m being a bit too cynical. And I would agree — if we were playing the opposite game.
George Orwell perfectly captured the spirit of the political opposite game.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
The government in Orwell’s dystopian world used this kind of language to promote “doublethink.” This is the ability to embrace two contradictory ideas at the same time and believe they’re both true. Basically, it turns the citizenry into incoherent idiots.
This is not happening in America. (You can decide if I’m playing the opposite game right now.)
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell was apparently playing the opposite game last week when he announced the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet policy moving forward. He said — and I quote — “This is not QE. In no sense is this QE.”
So, what is the Fed going to be doing?
Well, QE (Quantitative easing.)
In simple terms, QE is the Fed creating money out of thin air and using it to monetize the U.S. debt and inject “stimulus” into the economy.
So, according to Powell, the central bank will be expanding its balance sheet. The Fed chair said details of the process will be explained in the following days, but it will involve the purchase of Treasurys.
This is exactly how quantitative easing works. So, basically, the Fed announced QE while telling us that it won’t be doing QE.
Now some might say Powell isn’t a politician. After all, the Fed is a “non-political private bank.” OK. And Supreme Court judges are “non-partisan.” Don’t believe it. Powell is the quintessential politician. And this is just another example of the political class lying to us.
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