"In the end, the end of the zero bound policy is now a game of politics." Indeed. Sadly, just like the times before, the central bank of the US as it gets more powerful will seek to corrupt and destroy the fairness of democracy and cause financial mayhem in the process. This is why the central bank of the US was disbanded 2 times before and had to be made the 3rd time without anyone knowing until it was too late. And this was when the central bank wasn't allowed to engage in QE.

If you want to keep your democracy and insure capitalism and market stability run by reason and sound judgment limit or revoke the central bank. There is no reason in the modern age as to why the US can't just directly auction its debt. And there is no reason why you can't have a regulatory agency set rates for bank reserves and determine interbank lending. At least they will be visible, transparent, owe their loyalty to the public, and be responsible and accountable. The Federal Reserve doesn't do its job regulating banks, is a failure at rate setting, and is a captured agency by the banks it is suppose to watch over. And it enriches its clients with public powers. It is everything you don't want in an institution. If you do want market mayhem, corruption, an institution that purposefully undermines capitalism and democracy, then you'll really like the Federal Reserve.

Thanks for your continued spotlight on HFT trading and how these players make unfair advantages for themselves. The issue they aren't reigned in is because the main players in this is not a coven of players in the dark, it's the big banks and brokerages which have now merged to make it even more unfair and uninviting to average investors. Not like they care, this just forces people to buy mutual funds or other garbage which they can strap on a money sucking vacuum to your wealth.

The government is happy with this. It lets TBTF banks fix the market that the Federal Reserve is pushing them into investing while allowing the federal government to mint money charging taxes on theoretical gains on mutual funds artificially increased by such action. Such a set up would never work if people just bought stocks. Thus the benefits of this type of market are much bigger than just high speed trading and is why it will not get fixed while under the arm of an encaptured institution like the SEC.

The Federal Reserve's action are clearly feeding TBTF banks at the cost to America. Sadly, their behavior is too complicated for the Average American t9o comprehend just like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are too complicated to make American's realize they socialized the US housing market which will inevitably destitute a wide swathe of Americans and leave their houses they think they own in the hands of TBTF banks (yay success. A little cheer goes up from the Federal Reserve). The only thing Americans will hold in their demented system is debt.

Sadly this is also political. The Federal Reserve does not want to hike rates or affect the economy until after the next presidential election. This is another reason why the first two central banks were abolished, not just for making a mess of the economy but using their power to distort politics and corrupt America. What they could have done with QE back then? We'd probably be living in a Soviet Russia style government by now. Let's hope we aren't headed there in the near future.

Yellen must be laughing at how stupid people are in the market. She is a dove. I'm sure she feels that those that believed otherwise deserve to lose their money. After all, she wants the TBTF banks that got her into the head of the Federal Reserve to be richly rewarded off of the backs of wealthy people who get no interest and the American people who are the cows for her TBTF banks to feed off of when the next downturn comes. She is not the saint that pours money onto the people, she is the pied piper leading Americans into debt so they all fall down the economic cliff she is creating as the Federal Reserve continues the zombie economy.

It is depressing, not because economics is the dismal science, because the economy has been hijacked by self interested who want wealth at no cost to them but at a gigantic cost to all the rest of America. I hope everyone wakes up and sees the trail of cookies leads off a cliff worse than the last one the Federal reserve made for America.

Yawn... I wish people would wake up and realize Yellen is a dove. Always will be a dove. By June she will be streaming the economy needs help and no rate increase. Her actions are 100% no surprise to me as I stated many times before.

Sadly, with the rise in the cost of employment, the move to automated systems will only increase. This is not bad however. It enables human capital from doing other things than moving boxes, stocking shelves, and running checkout lines. The issue here is that the workforce must keep up with the changes which it isn't given the failure of our government and Federal Reserve to let economics force the traditional change needed to make the workforce adept at meeting the jobs of the future.

In addition, the government has socialized student loans and barred debt relief and encouraged junk institutions including Trump business school to prey on our youth. Rather than invest in high speed Internet for all like South Korea we bailed out banks. Rather than encourage software programming like India we bailed out GM. There is a reason why the US is not recovering and foreign countries are eating our jobs. Wake up US.

Rig count is a rather silly way to keep track of oil output in the US given you can just track oil output and inventory itself. Rig count was used by Wall Street to sucker dumb investors into letting them offload their bets onto them preaching a bounce back. Avoid this number and you will be better off.

Sadly your assumption is right. Even the Federal Reserve has come to the harsh conclusion that excessive QE above what they have already done (not in an economic downturn) is not sustainable as it takes even more capital to stimulate the economy further. Furthermore, increasingly unless they openly admit to eating their own tail, monetary expansion here will have a hard time finding enough buyers of treasuries and currency once other global issues resolve. For now global instability is helping the Federal Reserve at bond auctions.

It is too bad the movie doesn't cover the first two US central banks and why they failed. It's assumptions are also wrong. Keeping rates low has already gotten the economy to depend on a oversupply of money with corrupt people feeding off of money that provides wealth without goods and services. That has already raised prices. Any cuts to this will lead to people clinging to money and the scarcity of money not the profusion of monetary activity will ensue.

Furthermore, that which will deflate will be the investment assets banks have bet on more than consumer prices. Thus an asset bubble is really what the Fed is protecting to protect banks, not the public as it has been doing for the last 20 years. Inflation is not the problem and arguments about it prevent any solution. Deflation of assets is the issue because they are dependent on the continuation of absurd unsustainable policies.

The film is correct in that the Federal Reserve should not regulate and does not regulate and that the Federal Reserve is engaged in protecting TBTF institutions and actively inflating the market much like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still inflating the housing market.

The film is also right that the Federal Reserve has ruined every tool they had to regulate the economy by abusing their power. Sadly the Federal Reserve also plays the devil trying to stimulate people to do exactly that which is bad for them. Few realize how this benefits the very banks the Federal Reserve supports which leads them into a very diabolical conflict of interest.

The simple fact is the Federal Reserve needs to be stripped of regulatory abilities and it needs to be given to a real regulatory arm. Arguably the Federal Reserve needs regulating as well since their aim is clearly for their own self interest and popularity regardless of the true cost to society. The Federal Reserve is a tool of the government and supports planned socialized economics not unlike communist nations. Capitalism needs to resume the pedestal and monetary policy needs to be toned town to allow true economic signaling and costs for bad behavior and rewards for proper behavior to manifest themselves.

Sadly the Federal Reserve has become a enemy to the very capitalism they are sworn to protect. The eventual result will be fatal for the American citizen well before it is fatal to the hordes of pigs sucking from the free spigot they supply. There is a reason why the central bank was dissolved 2x by the US. We should realize why so many were against the creation of a 3rd one.