Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen Testifying Before the House Financial Services Committee on June 22, 2016
Millions of Americans think that Congressional Republicans are in conspiracy with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cato Institute, Koch brothers, and the Mercatus Center to advance an agenda of increasing corporate profits while sacking the needs of the poor and middle class. That doesn’t mean, however, that Republicans can’t sometimes spot a conspiracy on the part of others.
Yesterday, four Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, during the semi-annual monetary policy testimony by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, presented a persuasive argument that it’s really the Federal Reserve (which was flattered by many House Democrats at the hearing) that’s sacrificing the poor and middle class in order to benefit the rich and “the Goldman Sachs CEOs of the world.”
Congressman Ed Royce, Republican from California, said that he was “concerned that the Federal Reserve has created a third pillar of monetary policy, that of a rising and stable stock market.” Royce said that Yellen’s predecessor, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had told the Committee that the goal of quantitative easing was to increase asset prices like the stock market in order to create a wealth effect.
Royce raised the specter that the Fed is actually being held hostage by the stock market and Wall Street, stating:
“Every time in the last three years when there has been a hint of raising rates and the stock market declined accordingly, the Fed has cited stock market volatility as one of the reasons to stay the course and hold rates at zero.”
…
