And s an Austrian, I reject the very concept that central planners have any such abilities. The deflation is the correction.
The thing is that the central planners use violence therefore they dont operate under the same market rules the rest of us do. Specifically, the central bank manages the monopoly on money imposed by the government using force. The Fed is not omnipotent, but it does have a very strong influence, greater than anything else probably.
Sure, it would have been more intense, but it would likely already be over. Which is worse; 18 months of an unabated natural correction, with high unemployment, bank failures and forclosures; or the same exact end results over 10 years?
I'd rather take rip off the band-aid fast.
I completely agree.
So markets vary, and different industries correct in different ways on different timelines. That does not alter the overall results.
Neither does the CPI, or even GPD for that matter. Human minds require looking a small slices of representative data at a time, which is why we depend upon statistics to begin with.
Yes, but it seems very clear to me that the new money injected by the Fed is not going to go to blow another bubble in the typical way, but rather concentrate in the most needed products: food, commodities, energy, etc... So its my opinion that the bubbled industries (mainly housing) is going to keep going down in price for a while, but the basic stuff like food or energy is going to go ballistic. The UK government is studying what would happen if the price of oil goes ballistic like it happen in the 70's:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/liberaldemocrats/8016774/Liberal-Democrat-Conference-Oil-price-could-double-in-return-to-1970s-style-shocks.html
Keep in mind that I am saying that prices will go up, but the economy will not recover. Unemployment will be still high.
That may yet be, but it still looks like this is running more like 1932 than 1978 to me.
We will have to wait and see.