The war began in 2008.  Our armies arrayed themselves on the battlefield and waited for their generals.  Alas, only one general showed up, and that was only a lesser general.  The other generals stayed in the barracks and pointed fingers at each other.  The armies had no choice but to follow the one general who had the courage to lead.  Yesterday, that general was badly wounded!  The armies must now beg for the other generals to show up and lead . . .

Last December, the Fed raised short-term interest rates by a quarter-point and predicted they would raise the rates four more times in 2016.  I wrote then that the increase was for political reasons, not economic reasons, and predicted the Fed would raise rates only once in 2016 at most.  For the last two months, members of the Fed have been warning the next increase would be this summer.  I was hoping they would.  Yesterday, they said they really didn’t know when they would be raising rates again.  They have become sadly irrelevant.  Monetary policy has now been used exclusively since 2008.

General Monetary Policy has led bravely up to this point but is now wounded and exhausted.  We now must beg General Fiscal Policy and General Immigration Policy and General Trade Policy and General Tax Policy to take to the battlefield and finally win this war!  Unfortunately, those generals are still cowering inside Congress and the White House, bathing in their ideological purity, without any pretense of filthy compromise.

This impotence among generals has been brought to you from safely Republican districts that don’t produce moderate Republicans and safely Democratic districts that don’t produce moderate Democrats, all void of any filthy, unprincipled compromise.  In our form of government, redistricting is the root of all evil.

We need those other generals NOW!