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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Biden doesn't set the interest rate. That's the Fed. The Fed Chair was appointed by Trump. He printed a shitload of money during Covid (which imo should have never happened) and now the chickens have come home to roost. The interest rate hikes are to combat inflation. They are trying to decrease the money supply to unfuck everything and get us back to normal. They are there to make you, in your situation say, this is a bad financial decision paying the same price as 2 years ago with a substantially higher rate maybe I don't need this, or I'll wait for prices to come down since the payment is not affordable. People then consume less and it decreases demand for goods and services, and prices should in theory stop going up or even go down a bit. Your example is proof that what they want to happen is happening. I was trying to buy a house, and gave up after being outbid numerous times during the pandemic. At these rates, I've pretty much decided to shelve the idea of homeownership at least for now.
It absolutely sucks ass, but if we'd let the low rates continue, inflation would have spiralled out of control by now. And while we are certainly in a short term period of pain, I have to hope that it will work out in the end and we can get back some semblance of affordability and pop the everything bubble we created. The low rates were as bad if not worse for the economy. Every home in my area was going $300k over asking with multiple offers sight unseen, and asking price would be 20% higher yoy . New and used cars went crazy in price, groceries practically doubled and everything was getting really bad. This shit sucks, but it's because of our fiscal policies of covid under Trump. Yes, you can say that helicopter money didn't help with inflation, but it was kinda a drop in the bucket compared to what Powell did.
I personally don't think the Fed has done enough, and needs to go full Volcker on us and jack the rates even more. The Fed aims for getting inflation back to 2%, but imo we need to aim for a brief period of deflation to make up for the inflation we've suffered the last 3 years. It sucks to say, but we need a full blown recession to get us back to normal, otherwise it will stay shitty and the rich will get richer while the poor get poorer. We need to force investors out of the housing market and bring them pain. Unfortunately, that only happens when people lose jobs and don't pay rent. Then owning property to rent is less desirable, and property owners sell and put their profits into HYSA's and other safe investments. More inventory gets put on the market, supply goes up, demand goes down, price goes down and we can celebrate actually being able to afford stuff again. If we don't go full recession, you will own nothing and be happy and corporate landlords will continue to jack rent and sit on property for an eternity. Enjoy serf life. There's no way to fix this without pain unfortunately. It's a shitty situation all around.
I don't think low rates caused inflation, and I don't think high rates were to lower inflation.
Inflation resulted from supply chain issues and businesses believing (correctly) that they could raise prices beyond their increased costs and rake in additional profit, all while blaming inflation.
High interest rates were to punish labor - to raise unemployment in order to prevent labor from obtaining enough power to demand better pay and better conditions.
Biden had the opportunity to replace the Fed chair and failed to do so:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/22/president-biden-nominates-jerome-powell-to-serve-as-chair-of-the-federal-reserve-dr-lael-brainard-to-serve-as-vice-chair
Yeah, but at that point, the Fed had already begun tackling inflation which I believe Biden was on board with, and didn't want to change horses in the middle of the race. Brainard who was the frontrunner at the time was more dovish, and likely would have made inflation worse. I do think it's no coincidence that the Fed took no action on inflation until Biden was in office. Likely hoping get people pissed off by the next election cycle to get the orange guy back. It's a god damn mess.