@AccordionBruce @sarahtaber The system was developed assuming a large middle class and affordably priced luxuries (like houses), so control interest rates and you control spending, more or less. And it was specifically designed to preserve class division by slamming on the brakes as soon as lower class folks started doing too well (tracked by the unemployment rate). So we don't have the conditions anymore where that plan worked, and also the plan sucked from the start.