[coliveira]

I used to be bearish on the Chinese economy until I saw how they handled the crisis of 2016. Nowadays I think if there is an economy that can sustain bubbles, the modern Chinese economy is that one, because it is basically controlled by the communist party. The US, on the other hand, is just one financial bubble away from the collapse (unless we use similar tactics to control the financial system - which will be much more painful than in China).

[AnimalMuppet]

Well, the last bubble that broke here, the Fed saw that the bubble collapse had destroyed about $3 trillion, and injected $3 trillion into the economy to stabilize things. That actually worked rather well. It was very painful, but not catastrophic.

[coliveira]

Of course the next bubble will require more than $3 trillion... And saying that things are going rather well is absurd.

[AnimalMuppet]

I didn't say that things are going rather well. I said that the Fed's intervention worked rather well. That's not the same thing.

In particular, compare 2008-2017 to 1929-1938. That gives some (imperfect) measure of how well the Fed intervention worked.