Paul Volcker's voodoo economics

These Fed Folks have always been nebulous creatures accountable to no one, but celebrated within the DC Martini Clubs. I am glad POTUS does not hold them in such high regard.

Anyone who buys into Keynesian economics isn't very bright. I took one course in macroeconomics in college, an elective. The first few weeks were a real PITA, it is necessary to learn an entire new vocabulary to even begin to scratch the surface of macroeconomics. Not fun, but I worked through this very boring part. Once I was able to grasp the terminology, I was quickly baffled. So much of what was stated by the various authors was so disconcerting, so odd, so questionable to me. After reading Keynes and Samuelson quite a bit, and coming away VERY uncomfortable with the stuff that they were writing, I ran across a small sidebar in the text book. It was about some guy named Milton Friedman. VERY quickly, it became clear that Friedman had the inside track and Keynes and Samuelson were totally full of beans, head to toe. I learned enough macroeconomics to understand the basics, and then graduated in the middle 70s. By the middle 80s, it was clear that the Bozo in Charge, going by the name of Volcker, was a clueless Keynesian, and was really screwing up everything. I have not much faith in The Fed, hope that they minimize the harm that they do. And Friedman missed a number of things, too, although I imagine he would point out that things are different now, the playing field is far from level. I think Friedman's his insistence that tariffs were always a bad idea, makes some sense in some cases. Sure, if we ignore the fact that jobs are not actually interchangeable, and that our government has put huge added enviro, labor and tax costs onto our businesses which do not exist in China or other 3rd world countries, it SEEMS reasonable to let low wage countries supply our manufactured goods. But in reality, it does not work, we have huge unemployment, a collapsing middle class, and Bob, the vacuum cleaner assembler, or Joe, the auto plant worker, aren't actually going to become internet code writers, or international bond traders. And when our enemies, like China, steal all our technology and intellectual property, as a government policy, and pay nothing for it, and sell cheap goods back to us to finance their military machine, being built to attack us.....it is a really bad idea. MAGA!

I have a degree in Economics from a large Eastern University, graduating in 1977 fully trained in the canon of Keynes and Samuelson. Over time, I came to realize that the only places where Keynsian theory works are on a University blackboard and in Paul Krugman's brain. It's complete hooey.