Government Cuts $5.5 Billion from Food Stamps Over Five Years

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

but Gives Banks $300 Billion in Only Three Months

The Federal Reserve is quietly pumping big money into the banking system by way of the market for repurchase agreements (the repo market). In September, this sector—which connects institutions with cash to institutions in need of quick cash (short term loans)—went suddenly dry, and interest rates on short term debts spiked from around 2 percent to 10 percent. To normalize interest rates, the Fed began pumping cash into market by purchasing stagnant paper (treasury bills and other securities). Since then, a staggering $300 billion (the feds pumped another $70 billion into the repo markets this month), has been spent to keep the repo market going.

Jerome Powell, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, claimed that this massive operation was not quantitative easing (QE)—the $4 trillion Fed program that re-inflated the insolvent stock market after the crash of 2008—because the government is now only purchasing short term debts. QE was about long term debts. But this distinction is meaningless for one simple reason: the repo operation is, like QE, expanding the Fed's balance sheet. Meaning, the cost of saving this financial market is, once again, being transferred to the public.

The operation — let’s call it QE4 — is supposed to carry through the second quarter of 2020, as per the Fed’s own statements. We don’t know when in the second quarter such QE maneuvers might end, but whether it’s April or June, we may see a record-high Fed balance sheet during that quarter.

The lowest reported point of the Fed’s balance sheet since the balance sheet normalization started [under Obama] was $3,759,946 billion ($3.76 trillion rounded) on Aug. 28, 2018. The latest reported level is $4,047,882. That’s close to $300 billion in QE added in only 2½ months since the disruptions in overnight interest rate markets started in September. If the Federal Reserve carries the $60 billion monthly rate until the second quarter, that would mean that it would have surpassed the all-time high of $4.5 trillion in its balance sheet holdings (set in February 2015) sometime during June 2020

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/12/05/42180283/government-cuts-55-billion-from-food-stamps-over-five-years-but-gives-banks-300-billion-in-only-three-months

[Grasswire2]

1. why does this say "government" makes these changes?

Why not say "Trump Administration....."?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Ask the author

There's a comment section to the article.

The guy's generally pretty liberal so it may have been a poor choice of words on his part.

[StarfishSaver]

7. He probably didn't write his own headline

[moondust]

3. Predatory kleptocracy. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

4. The cruelty is the point in this administration.

As usual, with republicans, they screw over those who have nothing in favor of those who have too much. It's sickening.

[VOX]

5. Many Trumpists receive food stamps.

Recently, various news outlets have reported that a significant number of poor whites in the South and Midwest—a big part of 45’s base— are on some form of government assistance, including food stamps. Hard to say if ANY issue would peel this demographic away from supporting 45; but for now, they continue, and they do so at their own peril.

Some documenting links:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-10/trump-voters-would-be-hit-hardest-by-gop-s-food-stamp-work-rules

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6771938/amp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkprogress.org/the-trump-administration-plans-to-gut-food-stamps-hitting-red-states-hardest-8f543d5b4a68/amp/

[Andy823]

6. trump will tell the diehard base

it's all the Democrats fault, and they will believe him! It's just. insane how his "cult" followers believe every word trump says, and will defend his insane policies at all cost to them.

[VOX]

8. Sad truth. An insanity described in 2004's "What's the Matter With Kansas?"

That book laid it out in detail. Kansas was imploding economically, schools empty, infrastructure crumbling, contaminants leeching into the soil, just a wall-to-wall mess— because Kansans kept voting, time and again, against their own economic interests (not to mention their own health and well-being).

Kansans had their “conservative values” (oxymoron), but were living in a hellhole of their own making. Same as what Trump & Co. are trying to do to the country...and worse.