Does not compute

Blog Simple has often spoken of, nay, trumpeted our ignorance of the finer points of economic policy, and while the times have changed in that we are devoting more energy to try to understand our current clusterfuck, don't come here for the last word, please.

But when we read that Bernanke is proposing that the Fed buys long term Treasury bonds to influence their yield, the jaw drops, the eyes glaze over, and the need for strong drink grabs the body in a steely grip.The alternative might be the fate suffered by the unfortunate gentleman pictured above. He, too, needed a drink.

The proposal assumes that the US can print all the money it wants to, and prop up the value by buying some of it back. Insanity doesn't even begin to describe it.