katelynriwv: Making Easy Money

The Federal Reserve is America's Fourth Branch of government and Ben Bernanke is, in effect, the economic czar of the country. The Fourth Branch? The Fed and the Fed alone has the power to determine how much money should be in the economy. Such vast power over our lives makes the Fed a de facto fourth branch of government. Yet, its powers are not defined by the Constitution, and neither the chairman nor senior officials are elected by the people.

The seven Fed governors are appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate, for 14 year terms. The chairman of the Fed is appointed to his office for four years, and presidents have been more likely to re-appoint chairmen than not. Alan Greenspan's tour of duty lasted almost 18 years. Dr. Bernanke is in his second term. Perhaps one might be carried away with such power if one had it.

While the popular meme is that the Fed is owned and controlled by the "banks," they are, de facto, completely controlled by the federal government and history shows that no Fed has ever bucked the administration in power. In effect their "independence" has been co-opted by the government.

Should one institution or one man have such vast power over the economy? I don't believe so. This article is not about how to do away with the Fed (though I believe there are better ways to deal with monetary policy), but rather how easily we have accepted the Fed's status as The Great Regulator and its power to centrally plan the economy. For, when you analyze its functions and its mandate to keep prices steady and maintain full employment, that is central planning. And that is power.

And, they haven't done a very good job at it. Yet it is obvious from listening to Chairman Bernanke that he and the rest of the Fed's 19,000 employees believe they do control the economy. In reality all they really do is cause the boom-bust cycles that have been plaguing the economy. Once you understand this then understanding why they have failed to restore the economy from the recession they created is rather easy to see.

Like most economists, the Fed and its chairman mistake their manipulation of money for control of the economy. You and I are the economy and it is quite apparent that the Fed has very little "control" over us. If they could control us, then their policies would have worked and they wouldn't keep experimenting on us with radical policies like quantitative easing and ZIRP.

Money, lest we forget, it just a medium of exchange. It does other things as well (store of value, indicator of the relative cost of things), but its primary function and the reason money was invented is to allow us to easily facilitate exchanges of goods and services. The economy is what we do everyday when we work, buy, sell, and save. Money is just a tool we use. When the Fed manipulates our money what is does is upset our ability to plan about the future. We have one set of perceptions about what money is and then the Fed distorts those perceptions and we end up making bad choices and bad plans. It results in the boom-bust business cycles we have and price inflation or price deflation.

Dr. Bernanke has an exalted status in society and he is treated with deference and is adulated almost everywhere he goes. He has been barnstorming the nation with the purpose of "listening to the people" on how things are going out here. Perhaps these "town forums" he's been holding have been done by other chairmen, but I don't recall that. It reminds me, rather disturbingly, of a political campaign.

Listening to Dr. Bernanke on the "60 Minutes" interview was revealing and at times shocking. I urge you to view the interview, below. Reporters are intimidated by him because of their lack of knowledge of economics. Sunday night's interview was a shameless softballing by the timid reporter, Scott Pelley.

Mr. Pelley should have asked challenging questions. Why aren't Fed policies helping to create jobs? When you say the Fed doesn't "print" money, aren't you being disingenuous since you create money by the stroke of a keyboard? You say the risk of not acting during the crisis in 2008 would have caused another Great Depression as a result of a financial collapse. Do you have any reasonable evidence of that? What basis do you have for saying we would have 25% unemployment without the Fed's $3.3 trillion "rescue." Why are interest rates rising instead of declining as a result of your QE2 policy? If you believe your policies have helped the economy, why haven't they worked so far? Etcetera ...

I probably disagree with almost everything Dr. Bernanke says in the 60 Minutes interview. It just amazes me that Chairman Bernanke could sit there and say the things he said in light of the Fed's track record. He is totally incapable of admitting that the Fed is the source of our problems not our solutions.

This king has no clothes.

There is another ten minutes of interview outakes that you can see here.

The Business Travel Series is supported by Philips ChargeOn, a wire-free mobile phone charging system that gives you up to 4 hours of additional talk time when you’re on the go. To learn more about Philips ChargeOn, visit its website here.

Business travelers know better than anybody that time is money. Every second you spend fumbling around trying to find directions, losing receipts or trying to communicate in a language you don’t understand could mean the difference between making the big meeting or being out of a job.

If you own an Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android smartphone though, you can make your life a lot easier with apps that enhance your business productivity while you’re on the go.

From collaboration to expensing, we’ve chosen six Android apps we believe are essential to any business trip. They will help keep you organized and focused on the business you need to take care of, no matter where you are.

Here are our six essential Android apps for business travelers.

1. Expensify

The expense report is one of the most essential but annoying components of business travel. You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them.

Expensify makes this process easier to manage by importing your receipts directly from your credit card and turning them into easy-to-send PDF reports. The Android application makes it dead-simple to add cash expenses, log mileage and upload images of your receipts while you’re on the go.

Plus, how can you hate an application with “expense reports that don’t suck” as its tagline?

2. Talk to Me

Talk to Me is a simple application that translates what you’re saying into another language in real time. If you need to ask for directions in French, need to dictate complicated commands in Italian or just want to impress your friends with Spanish translations, this is the app to have. We think it’s mind-blowing.

This app is essential for the international business traveler in a time crunch. It can even be set as a widget for easy home screen access.

3. TripItclass="blippr-nobr">TripIt

We’re big fans of TripIt here at class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable. It’s a master dashboard for all of your travel plans, tracking you and your network’s movements, points, miles, itineraries and more. It’s an essential for business travelers who want to organize and share their travel plans with the rest of their team.

The Android app extends that functionality to your smartphone so that you can access all of your team’s itineraries while in the airport or in the cab. It provides maps and directions. Pro users get two added bonuses: flight alerts and alternate flight options.

There are several great trip organization apps, but TripIt is the cream of the crop.

4. Box.net for Android

Say you have a presentation to give in Berlin in two hours, and your team calls you to tell you that they needed to make last-minute changes to your presentation, plus they want to send you info on the people you’re meeting. You’re not able to get your laptop out to review the new information, so what do you do?

Simple: You whip out your Android phone and launch Box.net to pull up the presentation and the files while you’re in the hotel, in the cab or in the waiting room. Box.net gives businesses the ability to easily share documents, and Box.net for Android lets you search and access them no matter where you are.

Having access to your company’s database of documents could mean the difference between being prepared on the road and being a bust at that big meeting.

5. Aloqa

Aloqa is a must-have for any business traveler that doesn’t want to waste time trying to figure out the best hotspots in the cities he or she visits. Unlike other location apps like Yelpclass="blippr-nobr">Yelp, Aloqa automatically notifies you of the interesting restaurants, events and places near you.

Once you set up your interests (“channels”), the notifications become killer. It’s not just “top restaurants near you,” but “top rated night clubs according to Yelp within walking distance.” There are a lot of customization options that ensure you always pick the best café for that impromptu business meeting near your hotel.

6. FlightTrack

For most business travelers, nothing is worse than arriving at the airport only to have your flight canceled or delayed overnight. It’s just as painful trying to check the status of your flight with the airline.

FlightTrack from Mobiata is an app that tracks flight times, gates, delays and more so that you know when you need to be at the airport and when you need to be booking a different flight to get back home.

For those willing to pay a bit extra, there is also a Pro version of FlightTrack, complete with TripIt integration, and thousands of airport listings.

Series Supported by Philips ChargeOn/>

More Travel Resources from Mashable:

- 6 Free iPad Apps for Planning Your Next Vacation/> - 4 Social Web Apps for Making and Sharing Your Travel Plans/> - 7 Ways Mobile Apps are Enriching Historical Tourism/> - 10 Social Media Travel Resources You May Have Missed/> - How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media

Photo courtesy of Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, laihiu

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Making Easy Money