Money For Nothing

Lessons from the Great Austrian Inflation

"One of these tragic episodes that is worth recalling and learning from was the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the accompanying Great Austrian Inflation in the immediate postwar period in the early 1920s. For those who say that such things as a hyperinflation, economic chaos, capital consumption and political tyranny 'can't happen here,' it is worth remembering that a hundred years ago, in 1914, few in prewar Vienna could have imagined that it would happen there." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLessons from the Great Austrian Inflation

Lew Rockwell: Speaking Truth to Monetary Power

"We have every reason to expect governments to exploit their positions as monopolists of the production of money in ways that increase their power and benefit favored constituencies. We do not need 'monetary policy' any more than we need a paintbrush policy, a baseball bat policy, or an automobile policy. We do not need a monopoly institution to create money for us. Money, like any good, is better produced on the market within the nexus of economic calculation. Money creation by government or its privileged central bank yields us business cycles, monetary debasement, and an increase in the power of government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLew Rockwell: Speaking Truth to Monetary Power

Hawks Take Flight: Why the Fed’s Hypocritical Dialectic Continues

"The Fed's monetary expansion ended in 1929. The 1950s equity rise ended with a bust in the early 1960s. The Nifty Fifty fad ended with the Crash of 1969. The market recovery of the 1970s ended in 1982. The next crash was in 1987. In 1994, an expansion gave way to a recession. A great tech expansion turned sour in 2001. A housing bubble deflated violently in 2008, not just in the US but around the world. And that is where we are now. This expansion has been driven relentlessly upward for some five-plus years. Another year or two and this latest 'Wall Street Party' will be finished. We anticipate a downturn that will be as violent or even more so than 2008." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHawks Take Flight: Why the Fed’s Hypocritical Dialectic Continues

Bank of Israel’s Fischer, Treasury’s Brainard to push for more activist Fed

"The arrival of former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and former U.S. Treasury official Lael Brainard will add two strong voices to back Chair Janet Yellen's view that loose monetary policy needs to be extended to turn around a slack labor market. Fischer intervened directly in Israel's mortgage market to tackle a real estate bubble, while Brainard pushed EU governments hard for more aggressive action from the European Central Bank during the euro zone crisis. Interviews with former colleagues and a review of their public statements also suggest both will want the Fed to remain in activist mode long after its current programs wind down and its bloated balance sheet shrinks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBank of Israel’s Fischer, Treasury’s Brainard to push for more activist Fed

Yellen tells graduates: Show grit like Ben Bernanke

"Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Wednesday delivered what you’d expect from a commencement speech: graduates, she said, should 'tend the fires of curiosity,' listen to others, and show grit in the face of failure. Yellen reminded New York University students in Yankee Stadium that even Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio failed most of the time they stepped to the plate, according to a text of her remarks. And what example did Yellen find for such an inspirational beacon of bravery? Why, her predecessor, Ben Bernanke." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYellen tells graduates: Show grit like Ben Bernanke

Why Are Bond Yields Falling as Stocks Rally?

"One of the most striking features of 2014 has been falling Treasury yields in the wake of the Fed’s tapering of QE. The standard theory goes that, as the Fed withdraws support for longer-dated bonds, bond prices will drop (as demand falls) and yields (which move inversely to prices) will rise. So much for standard theory… In addition to the divergence between large caps and small caps (which we wrote about here and here), the divergence between falling bond yields and rising large-cap stock prices is another sign that the rally in the S&P 500 and the Dow may not be as strong as some believe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy Are Bond Yields Falling as Stocks Rally?

Hidden Erosion of Corporate Worth Since U.S. Abandoned Money

"For 173 years, the United States used money as a medium of exchange. In 1965, it switched to using a floating accounting unit. This change coincided with a dramatic yet hidden reversal in the net trend of worth for U.S. corporations. The shift to fake money in 1965 just happens to coincide with the year that divides the long term trend of corporate worth in the United States from mostly up to mostly down. This chart reveals the breathtaking rise in total U.S. corporate worth during the money period and exposes the stunning net destruction of U.S. corporate worth since the start of the non-money period." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHidden Erosion of Corporate Worth Since U.S. Abandoned Money

Wholesale Prices in U.S. Climb by Most in a Year; Food Prices Surge

"The 0.6 percent increase in the producer price index was the biggest since September 2012 and exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, figures from the Labor Department showed today. Over the past 12 months, costs climbed 2.1 percent. Food prices surged by the most in three years. Wholesale food expenses increased 2.7 percent in April, the biggest jump since February 2011, led by an 8.4 percent surge in the costs of meats that was the biggest since 2003. A confluence of events ranging from drought in the West to porcine epidemic diarrhea is pushing up prices for beef, pork and other foods." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWholesale Prices in U.S. Climb by Most in a Year; Food Prices Surge

Yellen: How High Is Up?

"Yellen seems to be setting the table for continued monetization not industrialization. The Fed under Yellen, as under Bernanke, is concerned mainly with the 'monetary economy' because that benefits globalist strategies. A healthy 'normal' economy helps working class people. A monetized economy boosts stock markets, upscale real estate, high-end luxury goods, speculative investments, etc. From my point of view, this is no coincidence and it's one reason High Alert continues to present our 'Wall Street Party' meme. A slow economy awash in currency that is gradually trickled into stock and bond markets is an 'investor's' economy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYellen: How High Is Up?

Yellen Concerned Fed Models Fail to Predict Price Moves

"Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is concerned that the standard models central banks use to forecast inflation may be broken. Behind her disquiet: the failure of the models to foresee the path of prices in the U.S. during the last recession and its aftermath and in Japan during its deflationary period from 1998 to 2012. U.S. inflation has been higher than the simulations suggested, while Japanese price declines proved more persistent. Yellen alluded to her concerns in a speech last week, saying the Fed has to 'watch carefully' to see if inflation picks up as the central bank projects -- and hopes -- during the next few years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYellen Concerned Fed Models Fail to Predict Price Moves