Australian politics watchers will remember the defiance the Australian Reserve Bank showed in not making political decisions when dealing with interest rates in an election year. The US Federal Reserve is not so stridently empirical or independent. From swoop:

White House officials have told us that President Bush intervened forcibly to convince an initially reluctant Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates. "There were some telephone calls from the White House to the Fed in which some very crude language was used."

Is the White House claiming ownership of what is bad monetary policy? I doubt it matters, as adam pointed out through Marc Faber, Bernanke is a money printer.
Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.

Comments
  • Cam, purely for your information, the link you construct at the bottom of each post to see blog reactions on Technorati is incorrect.

    For example, on this post: http://www.southsearepublic.org/article/1100/read/political_us_federal_reserve

    you link to: http://technorati.com/search/http://www.southsearepublic.org/story//article/1100/read/political_us_federal_reserve

    instead of the correct: http://technorati.com/search/http://www.southsearepublic.org/article/1100/read/political_us_federal_reserve

    Cheers,

    John B.
    • cam . # .
      Thanks John. I was actually thinking of removing the technorati links in the next update (whenever I finish this project). They were to replace the trackbacks which became too much of a hassle due to spam.
      'Sworn to no party, and of no sect am I.' Frederick Vosper's republican motto.