In Tuesday’s New York Times, the Editorial Board offered up its expert commentary on the Fed. Here’s a snippet of that insightful commentary:

In a normal business cycle, low interest rates are usually enough to generate sufficient demand to boost economic growth to its historical average of roughly 3 percent. But there is nothing normal about the present cycle. The Fed has extracted about all the juice it can from low rates and continues to squeeze. It could also spur investment by tolerating higher inflation than its 2 percent target. But the basic problem — spurring demand on the part of consumers and borrowers — is outside its purview.

Only Congress can provide the extra dollars for that, but lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to take action, even just to provide basics like federal unemployment benefits or highway and bridge repair.

Given that failure to act, it is a wonder the economy has managed to grow at 2 percent. To assume that it will continue to do so or that it will fully recover without the government sector engaging in a meaningful way is to hope against evidence.

Oh my! What is “insightful” about that commentary is the insight it gives into the utter dearth of basic economic knowledge existing among the members of the NYT Editorial Board. 

I’ll keep this very brief and simply pluck out what I pray exploded out as obvious malarkey to the majority of my readers. This notion that “only Congress” has the wherewithal to get the economy humming at historically-average speed—and that the government sector has not engaged—is the definition of ignorance, if not pure political pander, if not, well, malarkey.

Reality: Only “lawmakers” engaging with the private-sector can provide the uncertainty that would restrain capital investment while corporate balance sheets are flush with cash and interest rates are at record lows. The fact that the economy has managed to grow at 2 percent amid such government sector meddling is a wonder.

Here’s a list, compiled back in August 2012 by Cato’s Thomas Firey, of 15 government sector engagements ($2.4 trillion worth) that have occurred since 2008. Allow me to add TARP, The Affordable Care Act and, in terms of Fed-meddling, the trillions of dollars printed under the QE programs. Oh, and regarding “basics like federal unemployment benefits”, count the number of unemployment benefits-related acts below: