by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
There is no doubt that there is a boom going on out there. Unfortunately, it’s just a boom in asset prices, and not in job growth. That means real incomes are going down for people who don’t make a sizable amount of income off assets they own.
In other words, for most people, the cost of living is going up while the job situation is stagnating.
Yesterday, the Fed admitted as much when the FOMC voted to take no action on the target federal funds rate announcing “Against this backdrop [of poor economic data], the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent.” (See the official statement, here.)The move signals a surrender on the Fed’s part in regards to earlier claims that it would gradually raise interest rates throughout 2016 back to more “normal rates” which haven’t been seen since 2009.