News Commentary

Could We Have Been Correct About the Stock Market?

"Today government – and its central banks – utilize the private sector for policy purposes. Tomorrow, government may see fit to move those levers directly. In the meantime, there can be no doubt – as we have observed – that the plan is to take the stock market a good deal higher. While equity purists shall object that when earnings decouple from prices a crash is near, we would beg to differ. Volatility is certainly headed our way. But not necessarily an earth shattering crash, or not yet anyway. Markets are strange beasts. Pumped up by modern fiat money, they can go higher than one might expect – and then stay down longer, as well, as Japanese markets have." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCould We Have Been Correct About the Stock Market?

Party On Wall Street! Larry Summers Wants to Charge People for Saving

"The Wall Street Party we've forecast continues to build. The JOBS Act is forcing new product into the IPO market. QE continues in the US, Britain and Europe. Janet Yellen and Mark Carney are not about to try to taper in any serious way. The fracking meme continues to be pursued, giving people at least the illusion of more gas and oil to stimulate another industrial boom. And now, to ensue that money flows copiously, top bankers are obviously considering negative interest rates. How do you increase consumer spending, thus contributing to the Wall Street Party about which we've regularly written? Try to increase the velocity of money any way you can." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingParty On Wall Street! Larry Summers Wants to Charge People for Saving

Jim Rogers … Sign of the Times?

"The fiat bull – which is really an unusual equity leg within a larger golden bull, from what we can tell – could run longer, even a lot longer. It could do so, as we have pointed out, with considerable volatility. But if the Fed continues to stuff banks and markets with money, we have a hard time believing that averages could plunge sharply and permanently, or at least not right away. Perhaps Rogers is aware, as we are, that top bankers are seemingly organizing a huge equity blow-off that takes the market a good deal higher before dropping it hard. In such a situation, we think there is certainly a possibility that central banking could be terminally discredited." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJim Rogers … Sign of the Times?

Most Bizarre Hedging Statement Ever?

"This last blow-off is going to be a merciless one that will precede perhaps a movement toward a more global currency or a diminishment of the dollar reserve standard itself. Many may be tempted to sit out this latest – promulgated – rally based on the obvious and evident macro-manipulations. And I will continue to point out the various machinations that are setting up the Party. They are a long ways away from snatching the punch bowl on this one and fortunes will be made because one thing this sort of vast manipulation portends is volatility and plenty of it. Is the market a kind of Titanic heading toward an iceberg? Of course it is. But it's going to be a helluva ride." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMost Bizarre Hedging Statement Ever?

Bitcoin: Hoping for the Best After Bernanke’s Endorsement

"Presumably we could discuss forever the occurrence of bitcoin and its evolution. Was it merely the first evolution of digital currency or was it put in place as a kind psyop to develop a currency that could then be subject to discussion, regulation and enforcement? Inevitably, we know what we are rooting for, which is the emergence of bitcoin as a truly untouchable digital currency that finds its own market path without the heavy hand of central bank supervision. The method that the power elite follows is all too predictable by now. They use false flags to get ahead of a trend and then attempt to steer that economic or sociopolitical trend toward a destination with which they are comfortable." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin: Hoping for the Best After Bernanke’s Endorsement

Bill Bonner: Paddywhacking

"Last week, Janet Yellen told the Senate what everyone wanted to hear: that the Fed would continue to support asset prices. With the 'Yellen put' in their pockets, investors bid up the Dow to over 16,000 by the end of the week. What to make of it? Although we have no doubt that Fed policies will prove disastrous, we have nothing but doubts about what form the disaster will take. John Williams of ShadowStats.com recalculates the Consumer Price Index, official unemployment rates and GDP figures based on more honest data and alternative methodologies. What he discovers is that the CPI is higher, unemployment is higher and the GDP is lower than the feds would have us believe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Paddywhacking

Ron Paul: Federal Reserve Steals From the Poor and Gives to the Rich

"As recently as five years ago, it would have been unheard of for a Wall Street insider and former Fed official to speak so bluntly about how the Fed acts as a reverse Robin Hood. But a quick glance at the latest unemployment numbers shows that QE is not benefiting the average American. It is increasingly obvious that the Fed's post-2008 policies of bailouts, money printing, and bond buying benefited the big banks and the politically-connected investment firms. It would be a mistake to think that QE is the first time the Fed's policies have benefited the well-to-do at the expense of the average American. The Fed's polices have always benefited crony capitalists and big spending politicians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: Federal Reserve Steals From the Poor and Gives to the Rich

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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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 →

Continue ReadingThe UK Recovery that Isn’t … the Market Recovery that Is

Jeffrey Tucker: Has the Fed Met Its Match?

"'It is hard to imagine a world,' says the unimaginative study, 'where the main currency is based on an extremely complex code understood only by a few and controlled by even fewer, without accountability, arbitration, or recourse.' Blink, blink. This is the Fed talking here. Talk about complex. When the Fed governor speaks in Congress, he (soon she) speaks in such a blithering array of econ-babble that no one dare respond, for fear of seeming ignorant. It’s like the first day of an Intro to Physics class. The professor asks if there are questions, and everyone sits in terror. In a half-century of this nonsense, only Ron Paul ever really dared to ask serious questions of the Fed." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJeffrey Tucker: Has the Fed Met Its Match?