THE BIG SHAKEDOWN: It's called cornhole the taxpayer

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-whitney/35727/the-big-shakedown-its-called-cornhole-the-taxpayer

The New York Times is bit late to the party, but, then, better late than never, eh?

Times economics writer Binyamin Applebaum has just discovered that the Fed's bond buying program--aka QE2--has lit a firecracker under stocks but done bupkis for the real economy. Applebaum--who apparently never trolls the econo-blogs to expand his understanding of what's going on in the world of finance-- is "shocked" that Bernanke's $600 billion "credit easing" strategy has turned out to be an utter boondoggle that's had no measurable impact on output, unemployment or growth. Whodacanode? But let's let Applebaum speak for himself:

"The Federal Reserve’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.

But most Americans are not feeling the difference, in part because those benefits have been surprisingly small. The latest estimates from economists, in fact, suggest that the pace of recovery from the global financial crisis has flagged since November, when the Fed started buying $600 billion in Treasury securities to push private dollars into investments that create jobs...

More at the link --