The Fed: Kicking the Economy's Steroid Habit

(MoneyWatch)  We knew that the Fed wouldn't change interest rate policy, but as my favorite teacher Mr. Maloney used to say, "words matter!" The Fed surely gets mired in word-smithing, but as the economy comes to a critical juncture, can't the central bankers speak in plain English?


Just tell us something like this: "the outlook has improved, but we're concerned that the fragile player still needs an injection of steroids to play in the big game." Sorry if you don't like baseball metaphors, but we're in the midst of the Fall Classic, so why not?

Maybe then, the Fed could tell us that the player was a high-performing athlete before we juiced him and he'll eventually get back to his top form, but in order to get there, we need to wean him off the stuff over time. When will our player be able to go it alone? My best guess is that we can expect to see the real deal on opening day of 2010...that is, Monday April 5th.

Image by Flickr User Muffet, CC 2.0