Since this is my first day doing this, I have alot of fresh thoughts, but this one has been with me for a while. The Fed has a hard job. Some folks like Ron Paul think they are evil and others think they are the greatest financial bankers in the world. The truth always lies in the middle, but I just dont believe the evidence is there anymore that the Fed is truly independent anymore and furthermore I think this constant grind for lower rates etc will eventually doom this recovery.
The housing bubble and all the overpriced mortgages and under-priced homes has never been purged from the market. A true cleansing of the housing market has been replaced by foreclosures, people being unable to refinance and people with very good credit scores being able to cut their mortgage rates. People may read this and say "@StretchNelson - are you saying that is bad and the government should do more to help the people underwater"...NO!!! What I am saying is that you never can truly have a recovery when so many people are still in a bad place. We can put duct tape over the situation by artificially keeping rates low (and thus reducing the government's borrowing costs tremendously) or we can let the market set the appropriate rate of interest, within reason, that allows the market to clear and also allow folks to not have their money be deflated by low-interest rates and increasing food and gas prices (oh yeah - per the government that is not happening).
Anyway, the main point here is that people seem to think the Fed and the government can do this forever. I guess we are just lucky that Europe is so bad that we look good....kind of?