The Federal Reserve is pumping $85 Billion a month into government bonds and has really inflated things around the Big Apple. A NYC realtor is advertising a one bedroom apartment in Harlem for rent at $28,000 a month. Facebook and Twitter are going public. Investment banks, Wall Street brokers and their employees are loving it. The companies that make "smart" phones, high-tech hardware and software are flourishing. Lawyers are giddy.
But let's take a look at the root of this economic boom. The "free" money from the Fed really only benefits those who are "connected" to government or Wall Street. Naturally, peripheral vendors do well, too. The DC area for example, even with the so-called government shut-down, has the highest income per capita in the nation. What is the economic engine that drives DC? Lobbyists, lawyers, accountants, and government taxing, borrowing and spending!
For consumers this exciting "new economy" means we can watch football in our car, at work or anywhere and we can play video games all day long with people working in other offices. We can read tweets about someone we don't know dining in a restaurant we never heard of. We can make reservations for our vacations or dinner while at work or even as we drive home. All this activity is guaranteed to keep us occupied and oblivious to what is really happening.
I have qualms about all of this. Who besides Wall Street, lawyers, devise makers, big carriers, politicians, government employees and tax collectors are making money from this "new economy?" Can walking around looking at a hand-held devise all day make a living? Will playing games on company time make an employer prosperous? Is the inflationary influence affecting NYC and DC contained? If the answers are "yes" then I'm all for it.
