Dishonesty and Candor in Monetary Policy

http://bastiat.mises.org/2013/08/dishonesty-and-candor-in-monetary-policy/

This blatant double talk just further compounds the basic dishonesty of the underlying  term “quantitative easing”. It is of course intended to disguise the truth which is that the Fed is creating money. Another favorite circumlocution, favored by nearly all mainstream journalists, is “bond buying.” Nobody ever mentions that the Fed is “bond buying” with newly created money, which is the relevant point.

The origin of today’s monetary policy of course lies in Keynesian economics, and Keynes was quite explicit that monetary authorities should intentionally use deception as a primary tool. He spoke of the need to gull workers into thinking that wages were going up even if net of inflation they were going down. At least he had a sense of humor about it, calling a central bank a “green cheese factory” that would persuade the public to accept ” green cheese” ( newly created money)  as the real thing.