Savings Investors Are "Collateral Damage," Says Professor
May 01, 2010
Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University gave quite a performance on Wednesday morning on CNBC--so standout was this performance, in fact, that many savings investors probably desired, at least momentarily, to jump through the television and punch this fine gentleman in the nose.
The debate on Wednesday was about whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to hold the Fed funds interest rate of 0-0.25 percent, and does this policy unfairly punish savers?
Blinder had some choice words for investors in savings accounts, CDs, and money market accounts. Choice words such as "unintended victims" and "collateral damage." Professor Blinder also spoke of "little old ladies in tennis shoes" who live off interest as being an unimportant constituency in the economic recovery.
Yes, professors who get on TV and say things should say things that are entertaining, but is this wholesale denigration of an entire class of investors really a good thing to say? Have not savings investors more or less saved the U.S. banking system from complete collapse?
These "little old ladies in tennis shoes" are people who have worked hard their whole lives to save up money, in hopes of--yes--living off interest and having some free time to enjoy their golden years. Such people should possibly not be publicly disrespected by professors who think they know everything.
We must value the conservative investors among us.
They saved us once, and probably will again someday.
Jeremiah Bouque
1 May 2010 at 9:07 am