In the world of theology, a monk's life is not an easy one. The monk may be free from the pressures of the world but surrenders all vestiges of material pleasure for such peace. Within the monastery walls, the monk lives a spare life of contemplation, self-denial and devotion. A monks reward is strictly the satisfaction of being able to survive these rigors while maintaining faith in God. In the secular world, there is another type of monk. His religion is monetarism. He is the people's money manager. His catechism is outmoded orthodox economic theory and the dubious concept of the unreal seasonal adjustment i.e., to make something that is real look like something that is not. Like Disneyland. Monks are cloistered from the pressures of the world. (181) . Unlike, his religious double, monks are free to pursue all the worldly pleasures of life. Many of these monks work for the Federal Reserve Board. There a monk's life is conducted as one continuing series of pleasant, often posh monasteries. Each morning, the Fed monk disappears inside the Federal Reserve Building monastery on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. He can look out the window of his air-conditioned office and see parks, trees and flowers. At his disposal are the latest advances in modern technology such as computers and communications equipment, and seasonal adjustment machines to smooth things out of reality. There are no facilities to read raw counts. The Fed monastery even has a status that is unique among Washington monasteries. It is not really a government agency. It's independent. It is supposed to be the closest thing to a profit-making organization within the bureaucracy. It is the equivalent of a central bank, which dates back to the actual monks of Ancient Europe. Yet, the U.S. Fed monk has none of the worldly problems of your everyday banker, or businessman. A Fed monk doesn't have to meet a payroll, fret about rising costs, worry about keeping profits respectable, head off a strike, pay bills, or guarantee that his organization pays its taxes to its government for his services. When the work day is over, the Fed monk gets into his car (never rides a bus) which becomes a mobile mini-monastery. With windows close and locked, he zips through the District of Columbia's unsafe streets as fast as possible so he can get home to still another form of monastery the lush suburbs of the nation's capital, where only 0.9% of all the people in the United States live. 99.1% live other places. The capital suburbs form the most unique monastery of all. They are a land of milk and honey and money as cloistered from the rest of the nation as a truly religious monastery. Once there, the monk is free to pursue all the trappings of affluent lifestyle to confirm in conversation with his neighbors from other Washington monasteries that everyone is having it this good. Seven in every ten receive cost of living raises, when the Fed raises the cost of money. And with serenity goes security, self feeding. The Fed monk need never feel threatened about his job. If he makes a mistake, so what. It can happen to any well-meaning monk. And it can be corrected. Or can it? Any mistake will work itself off in time, to prepare for the next mistake. Through his cherished isolation, the Fed monk has cut himself off from the people he's working for, blinded himself to the harsh effects on people that result from his mistakes. The Fed monk busies himself with lines and numbers and theories. What he does is supposed to work. If it doesn't then someone else must be to blame. The lines, the numbers, the theories dictate it is right to raise interest rates to cool off a rising seasonal adjustment. That's supposed to fight inflation. Fight fire with gasoline. If more inflation resulted, well maybe we ought to raise them higher. Something else is awry and it's not the monk's job to find out what. Some other monk has that responsibility. The Fed monk can't be blamed if the inflation eats into other people's income, causes them to grow more fearful and stop spending, drags down the whole economy. The Fed monk was right because the textbook said he was right, when he studied to become a monk. Besides the monk always can wangle a pay hike or a promotion when inflation starts to press him and his family. The prior in Congress will see to that. And what if the mistake of raising interest rates and aborting the economy is repeated three straight years? There wasn't any mistake. The seasonally adjusted numbers said we had to do it. A good monk does his job. And what if the numbers were artificial and wrong, excessively loaded with quirks from past aberrations? That's not the monk's bag. Monks just follow the numbers, don't pass on their accuracy. Monks are not questioned on accuracy. And what of the money losses suffered by other people because of these miscues? who believe in monks? Serves them right for not being a monk. Ah, for the life of a Fed monk. This Contribution To The 1977 Modern Art Of Sindlinger & Company, Inc., of Media in Pennsylvania DO |