Helicopter money would be far safer and easier than MMT.

Austerity from time to time could help, but continual austerity like we see in Europe is a total failure.

This must be what winning looks like. Or not.

Banks are weak.

Capacity utilization is creeping up towards 80, which was the average for much our national history. The question is, when will it cause serious wage inflation to be a threat. It may push up against recessionary pressures before that time.

Interesting rant. Worth the read. Of course, Dec 2018 only shows manufacuring productivity growth. We still don't know what total non farm productivity growth is. There are some coming out to work who stopped looking in the low growth years of 2014 and 2015. But wage growth for this mini recovery are historically low, except for durable goods. This is still the New Normal, Peter.

Low wages and low productivity growth make these easy money delinquencies expected. If Fed economists are surprised they prove Jeffrey P Snider's position that the Fed has no clue about this economy.

The US is navigating the dangerous waters of a global trade war with aplomb? Seriously? Only if a deal that is half way meaningful comes out soon, with no other tariffs on Europe, etc. Otherwise, the stock market will not feel aplomb.

Since it is considered dirty to just pump money in without offsetting sterilization in Japan, nothing happened, no inflation at all.

From Mish: Trump's trade policies have been an unmitigated disaster.

And: The US has trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, and recession hasn't even hit. Unfortunately, the most likely way the trade deficit drops is via an import demand collapse in the next recession.

Trump's deal will be like the deal he made with Korea. It won't be a win for America. It won't bring business to our shores, except on the edges. Maybe some high end production. Wages are too high here in comparison to China. That can't be changed by any deal.