Yearly Archives: 2013

A Regional FED President Says the FED Is Not Inflating Enough.

"This statement was Big News. It was such Big News that the Wall Street Journal ran a story on it. Why? Because when a regional Federal Reserve Bank president says the obvious is Big News, it means that he is opposed to tapering. It means that he thinks the counterfeiting of a trillion dollars of digital money a year is for wimps. What should the rate of counterfeiting be? He did not say. They never say. Their lips are sealed. This is what is known at the Federal Reserve as transparency. Opaqueness is when an official says something incoherent, which everyone in the media knows is incoherent, and they dutifully report as meaningful." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: It’s a dangerous time of year

"A stream of income – either from a stock or a bond – is a promise. The value of it depends on how much you trust the promisor and his money. That is the problem. As much as we like Ben Bernanke as a human being, we find grave fault in him as a god. Only a god could know more than the sum of all the knowledge held by all people who are active in the world economy. Only a god could select an interest rate better than the one they select for themselves. And only a god-awful economist could claim to do such a thing with a straight face. The galling thing is that he may be able to keep the whole shebang going for many years more." Continue reading →

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Detroit Stopped Issuing Death Certificates After It Ran Out Of Paper

"The city of Detroit was temporarily unable to issue death certificates in July because it had run out of the special embossed paper on which the certificates are printed -- and it didn't have any money left to buy more. After the city declared bankruptcy on July 18, its vendor for embossed death certificate paper demanded to be paid in cash, not credit. The city's funeral directors received this text message from Michigan Select Funeral Directors Association president Wallace Williams in late July, according to the Detroit News: 'FYI, city of Detroit can’t process death certificates because they have no paper and don’t have money to buy any.'" Continue reading →

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Inside Scoop on the Next Fed Chairman

"Davita Vance-Cooks is not a household name. But this will soon change. Not only will Ms. Vance-Cooks be 'the first female and the first African-American' (as The Washington Post would say) to run the central bank, but she will be the first chairman with printing experience outside the Fed itself. She is currently the public printer of the United States — as the head of the U.S. Government Printing Office (or GPO) is officially known. Before that, she had been 'acting public printer.' (The fact that she was acting did not make her less of a real public printer.) Ms. Vance-Cooks’ printing experience will be very useful at the Fed." Continue reading →

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The FEDsters Are Multimillionaires

"The senior officers of the Board of Governors are rich. So are some of the regional FED bank presidents. One of them is worth $50 million. Another owns 7,000 acres of land. He even owns gold. The FED is politically untouchable. Congress will not let the Government Accountability Office audit it. We hear of the need for more equality. The FED could use some. We hear of the need for transparency. Why doesn’t this include an audit? All the chatter inside the Washington Beltway about the role of democracy is great stuff for pulling the wool over the eyes of the voters. The cartel known as the state-licensed banking system has an enforcer. The FED is the enforcer." Continue reading →

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The Fed Can’t Stop Printing Money … or Else

"Several surveys have shown that most people believe they have above-average driving skills. In fact, 93% of student drivers think their driving skills are above average. The law of averages tells us that this can’t possibly be true. It reminds me of that survey that said 84% of Frenchmen think that they are above-average lovers. Wishful thinking. Such high self-regard with respect to personal competence is known as 'overconfidence bias.' People tend to overestimate or exaggerate their abilities. This bias is inherent in all of us. But it reaches an especially high level of intensity in one central banker." Continue reading →

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Jack Lew: Debt Ceiling Drama To Return in October

"Oh, debt ceiling battles… what wonderful political theater you are. The next battle is coming this fall, although no one seems quite sure when. Regardless, it will have an impact on markets, as before, and could send gold shooting skyward. Both parties are expected to dig their trenches even deeper this time… making the fireworks even more explosive than usual. Since the gridlock in Congress seems unlikely to change, expect this to become a new annual national pastime… something like D.C.’s version of the Super Bowl. Get out your popcorn… and don’t forget to keep an eye on gold prices. Remember this chart." Continue reading →

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Bloody Scenes from the Next Episode of Economic Crisis

"Stand by for round two of the global economic crisis, coming soon to a screen near you. It’s going to be as bloody and chaotic as the scenes on your TV from Cairo and Damascus. Yet, as ever, the chorus on Wall Street manages to keep a straight face and sing the same tune while robbing investors blind. Just listen to them on Bloomberg or CNBC and you would think the Fed has this all under control and the U.S. economy is recovering. Now, admittedly, economists are all facing the wrong way too. There is hardly a man or woman willing to stick their neck out and say the inflation-distorted figures that purport to show a recovery are turning in the opposite direction." Continue reading →

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Near the Debt Ceiling, No One Can Hear You Scream

"Let’s put these clues together. We have another fiscal crisis imminent with a looming debt ceiling drama. We have a Federal Reserve that is already doing a huge and unsustainable amount of 'stimulus' buying. And we have an economy far weaker than it’s been in more than a decade despite the bluster over GDP. The bigger concern is that the market doesn’t have any of this priced in at all. It’s true that August was the worst month for stocks since May 2012. Yet the market fell just 3.1% and is only 4.5% off its all-time high. That’s barely a scratch." Continue reading →

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If You Want To Know Why Things Are Falling Apart, Look at Total Debt

"It's easy to confuse trends and cycles. The Keynesian Cargo Cultists believe that we're in a cyclical downturn that can be 'cured' with more debt-based spending, i.e. worshiping their false god of aggregate demand. They cannot comprehend that we're not in a business-cycle recession, we are in a long-term trend where additional debt undermines the system as the positive returns on that debt turn negative." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIf You Want To Know Why Things Are Falling Apart, Look at Total Debt