GOVT - The Fed's Dangerous Game: A Fourth Round Of Stimulus In A Single Growth Cycle
By Brendan Brown
The longer the signals in capital markets go haywire under the influence of "monetary stimulus," the bigger is the cumulative economic cost. That is one big reason why this fourth Fed stimulus - in the present already-longest (but lowest-growth) of super-long business cycles - is so dangerous.
True, there is nothing new about the Fed imparting stimulus well into a business cycle expansion with the intention of combating a threat of recession. Think of 1927, 1962, 1967, 1985, 1988, 1995, and 1998.
This time, though, we've seen it four times (2010/11, 2012/13,