Weekend Economists: Spock Lives! March 6-8, 2015

[Demeter]

18. QE Inventor: It’s EASY to Create Full-Blown Recovery, But Central Banks Chose to Make Banksters Rich

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-05/qe-inventor-it%E2%80%99s-easy-create-full-blown-recovery-central-banks-chose-make-banksters-

Richard Werner (economics professor at University of Southampton) is the inventor of quantitative easing (QE). Werner previously said that QE has failed to help the economy. (Former long-time Fed chair Alan Greenspan agrees. Numerous academic studies confirm this.) But Werner is now taking off the gloves …He said recently:

It’s easy for central banks to take steps which would quickly create “full-blown recovery” for the economy

But the central bankers are instead choosing to act in a way which creates massive profits for the big banks, instead of stabilizing the economy. Werner blames the revolving door between central bankers and private bankers

The central banks have twisted the whole concept of easing … pretending that they’re trying to help the economy, when they’re doing something else entirely

Credit should be extended to the productive economy – businesses which create goods and services – and not to financial speculators or high levels of consumer debt. Extending credit to small businesses former creates prosperity; lending to financial speculators only leads to economic instability and soaring inequality; and when too high a percentage of lending goes to luxury consumer consumption, it’s bad for the economy

Banks create money and credit out of thin air when they make loans (background)

It’s a myth that interest rates drive the level of economic activity. The data shows that rates lag the economy

Indeed, economists also note that QE helps the rich … but hurts the little guy. QE is one of the main causes of inequality. And economists now admit that runaway inequality cripples the economy. So QE indirectly hurts the economy by fueling runaway inequality. A high-level Federal Reserve official says QE is “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time”. And the “Godfather” of Japan’s monetary policy admits that it “is a Ponzi game”. And – as counter-intuitive as it sounds – QE actually hurts the economy and leads to deflation in the long-run.