US monetary, fiscal pumps get going by default
Business Times - 15 Dec 2010 US monetary, fiscal pumps get going by default By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT REPUBLICAN and conservative critics of the economic policies pursued by the White House (government spending) and the Federal Reserve (printing money) had hoped that the electoral blow suffered by the Democrats in the recent mid-term congressional elections would force President Barack Obama and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to change course. It is time to put the brakes on spending by the government and on pumping money by the central bank - and to start cutting the deficit, they insisted. Now instead, Congress is expected to approve in the coming weeks legislation that, among other things, will extend the Bush-era tax cuts, continue to provide unemployment benefits to jobless Americans, enact a payroll tax holiday, and set up a new estate tax rate. What some angry conservative pundits are describing as the biggest economic stimulus package in American history - certainly mor...