Mad Statists

Economist Recommends ‘E-Dollar’ That Loses 5% Of Its Value Per Year

"'If you care at all about the future of this country, one of the things you need to realize is we need to solve the demand side so we can get back to the supply side issues that are really the tricky thing for the long run,' he said. 'The way to solve the demand side issues that is the most consistent with not messing up our supply side is monetary policy and making it so we can have negative interest rates.' At the moment, e-dollars are still only a theoretical concept, but Kimball is hopeful that they could be put into action in the near future. He believes that if a government bought in, it could be using an electronic currency in three years and reap the benefits of it soon after." Continue reading →

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The Fundamental Characteristic that Recommends Janet Yellen

"We expect an ever more emphatic stream of double-talk and market manipulations as the final acts of this tragedy play out. First, a Wall Street Party and then ... the ruinous aftermath. And throughout this scenario, the constant, delusional drip of increasingly unmoored statements about the Fed's competence and the government's efficiency generally. Somehow the eventual unwinding of these trillions shall be blamed on the private markets and as everything crashes down, those at the top will suggest a new and even more globalized system using the strategies that have created such domestic havoc." Continue reading →

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Monetary Madness

"In the Forked Tongue category, wannabe Fed chief Janet Yellen has now eclipsed Fed Chairman Bernanke for the first prize. In her testimony before Congress this week, she says little or nothing about the 2008 debt crisis, federal deficits, European debacles, fiscal cliffs or any others which were among her predecessor’s favorite excuses for the unprecedented money printing she vows to pursue. Nor does she talk much about a weak economy. Instead, her new rationale is that, although the economy has improved, it hasn’t quite improved 'enough.'" Continue reading →

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Russian lawmaker seeks to ban US dollar, predicts 2017 collapse

"To protect Russians against the 'collapsing US debt pyramid', a Russian legislator has filed a draft bill to ban circulation of the currency in Russia. Once a Moscow mayoral hopeful, Mikhail Degtyarev, 32, likens the US dollar to a worldwide ponzi scheme which he says is scheduled to end in 2017. The bill would impose a ban on dollars within a year of its passage, and any private citizen holding accounts in dollars would either need to spend the money or convert it to another currency. There is no proposed ban on the euro, British pound, yen, or yuan. If one doesn’t exchange or transfer dollars within a year, the dollars will be seized by officials, and reimbursed in rubles within 30 calendar days." Continue reading →

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What Janet Yellen Will Host and Why

"During her confirmation process, Yellen will give a spirited defense not only of money printing but of her own moral probity and will be clear that she views her life as one sanctified by public service. Whether she has devoted her life to a ruinous enterprise will not be discussed. Certainly the larger game will not be revealed. But hidden behind the policy discussions and concern over employment is the surety that Yellen will start her term by continuing to print vast gouts of money. This money will find its way into the stock market just as intended, continuing to create mountainous stock market averages and then eventually an equity mania." Continue reading →

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Yellen Signals Continued QE Undeterred by Bubble Risk

"'I don’t see evidence at this point, in major sectors of asset prices, misalignments,' she said during her confirmation hearing to be the next Fed chairman. 'Although there is limited evidence of reach for yield, we don’t see a broad buildup in leverage, where the development of risks that I think at this stage poses a risk to financial stability.' Yellen signaled her determination to use bond buying to strengthen the economy and drive down the nation’s 7.3% unemployment rate. As benchmark U.S. stock indexes rose to records, she sought to dispel concerns from senators that the central bank’s policy is pumping up the values of equities and housing to an extent that jeopardizes market stability." Continue reading →

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The UK Recovery that Isn’t … the Market Recovery that Is

"What central bankers do is print money – digitally these days – and then transfer those digits to financial firms. Now the money finds its way into the financial economy, including, most importantly, the bond and stock markets. Once the money has swelled the financial markets, the 'real' economy should benefit. And then once companies are feeling better about a 'recovery' they will finally start to hire. This convoluted chain of events is simply illogical. It would be much simpler just to GIVE people money if central bankers really wanted stimulate job growth and create prosperity. But that's not what is happening because the object of central banking is to create money and maintain control of it." Continue reading →

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Black Market Dollar Exchange Sparks Argentina Luxury Sales Crackdown

"Argentines who buy a car valued at more than 350,000 pesos ($58,600) will now be required to justify the transaction with the Financial Information Unit, the nation’s money-laundering watchdog, according to a Nov. 11 decree. Argentina is boosting its currency controls as consumers faced with 25 percent annual inflation turn to everything from luxury cars to gold and bitcoins as a store of savings. With the black market offering holders of undeclared U.S. currency 3.8 pesos more than the official exchange rate of 5.9764 pesos per dollar, demand for premium cars from Volkswagen AG’s Porsche and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is causing a 33 percent jump in imports this year." Continue reading →

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Where’s the Crisis That Requires Crisis-Era Monetary Policy?

"There simply isn’t one, no matter how much the Federal Reserve apologists try to justify the most aggressive quantitative easing since the 2008 crash. Look at initial jobless claims. Look at job creation. Look at GDP growth, or confidence, or anything else. None of these economic indicators are near or at the depths seen in 2007-2008 when the economy and credit markets were crashing. Then there’s the ISM manufacturing index, a benchmark survey of economic activity that has been conducted since 1948. This is no minor report, it’s right up there with the monthly jobs survey in terms of importance. And the story it’s telling is very important as far as I’m concerned." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Repeat After Me – Economics Is NOT a Science

"The problem is you don’t know anything. You don’t know if an economy really is like water. You don’t know where sea level is. For all you know, you’re high in the Alps. And you don’t know whether the fuel you’re using adds to the fire… or subtracts from it. QE, for example, may help heat up the economy. Or it may not. No one knows for sure. And get this. All those little molecules, you know – those individuals in the great economic pool? As soon as they catch on to what you’re doing, they will change their behavior. That’s the big difference between water and people. Water does the same thing no matter what you say or what you think. People don’t." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Repeat After Me – Economics Is NOT a Science