It’s not propagandizing when the right does it
Remember back in September ’09 when the right lost their minds right before President Obama delivered a national address to schoolchildren, encouraging them to stay in school? Right-wingers claimed Obama was propagandizing his secret Kenyan agenda…or something.
Well, if Obama’s attempt to prevent dropouts made wingnuts piss themselves, this will surely make their heads explode:
Now that the midterm elections are history, Sarah Palin is setting her sights and rhetorical skills on the Federal Reserve and its easy money policy.
On Twitter, the former Alaska governor and possible 2012 presidential contender said she would begin a round of discussions at school events to teach children about quantitative easing to prepare themfor the results of the Fed’s plan to boost the sluggish U.S. economy.
…
In an effort to boost lackluster growth the Fed has been injecting cash into the economy by buying up government securities in what it calls quantitative easing. It announced a fresh round of $600 billion in purchases last week and the action was welcomed by the stock market which moved higher on the news.
But critics, such as Palin and conservative Republican Ron Paul who is likely to head a House monetary policy subcommittee when the new Congress is seated in January, say the Fed’s move will do little to encourage economic growth and will ignite inflation.
Mm’k. Someone’s going to have to explain to me how this isn’t Palin taking advantage of schoolchildren’s vulnerable minds.
On the upside, even a five-year-old can see the gaping holes in Ayn Rand’s work, so we don’t have to worry about the threat of future generations being converted to Libertarianism.
(h/t Digby)
And just watch as inflation continues to fall over the next few months. I would break out cheering if inflation increased (or even stabilized), but $600B in purchases can’t do that.
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Jason Dick
10 Nov 10 at 10:17 am
In all fairness, there is a left-wing, and other non-right-wing critiques of quantitative easing or the current policies of the fed. Mind you such critiques differ from, and are usually made for different reasons than those of a Palin or a Paul. And none of that negates your point about addressing schools…but I’d just thought I’d say
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sinn4
11 Nov 10 at 12:58 am
It seems to me that being able to understand what quantitative easing would be a precondition for teaching it to students, and I just have trouble believe Palin actually understands the economic concept;)
That said, as sinn4 points out there is lots of reasons we should be pretty hesitant from an entirely progressive standpoint about the merits of QE2…I have talked about this a bit here: http://progressiveproselytizing.blogspot.com/2010/11/qe2-timing-underlines-its-undemocratic.html
Regarding Jason’s comments….I really like Stiglitz’s comments on Democracy Now which basically discussed how it is inflationary for parts of the economy (ie, things involved in currency speculations…thus making the rich rich) but will likely have either a neutral or perhaps a slightly deflationary pressure on actual basic commodities that affect the average person as described by CPI.
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Trefor
11 Nov 10 at 11:12 am