How To Spend $1.25 Trillion
futureofcapitalism.com

NPR's Planet Money program has a pretty good piece headlined "How To Spend $1.25 Trilllion." From the article:

In the end, they came very, very close to their target: They told us they were just 61 cents short. (In other words, they bought $1,249,999,999,999.39 worth of mortgage-backed bonds.)

The Fed was able to spend so much money so quickly because it has a unique power: It can create money out of thin air, whenever it decides to do so. So, Dzina explains, the mortgage team would decide to buy a bond, they'd push a button on the computer — "and voila, money is created."

The radio piece, which is worth listening to if you have the time and are interested in the Federal Reserve, refers to it as "magical."

Read More...

Disability Nation
futureofcapitalism.com

NPR takes an extended, skeptical, and very well done look at the disability benefits system:

The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined….

In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one exchange he had with a man who was on disability but looked healthy.

Read More...

Disability Nation
futureofcapitalism.com

NPR takes an extended, skeptical, and very well done look at the disability benefits system:

The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined….

In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one exchange he had with a man who was on disability but looked healthy.

Read More...

How To Spend $1.25 Trillion
futureofcapitalism.com

NPR's Planet Money program has a pretty good piece headlined "How To Spend $1.25 Trilllion." From the article:

In the end, they came very, very close to their target: They told us they were just 61 cents short. (In other words, they bought $1,249,999,999,999.39 worth of mortgage-backed bonds.)

The Fed was able to spend so much money so quickly because it has a unique power: It can create money out of thin air, whenever it decides to do so. So, Dzina explains, the mortgage team would decide to buy a bond, they'd push a button on the computer — "and voila, money is created."

The radio piece, which is worth listening to if you have the time and are interested in the Federal Reserve, refers to it as "magical."

Read More...