Tag Archives: monetary policy

To any sane person who has a grasp of what is presently occurring, it is obvious that the current state of affairs is unsustainable. The question is how long can the monetary captains' misguided policies keep us off the shoals of our economic destruction. How long can policies of "extend and pretend", "kick the can down the road" or "fake it until you make it" continue? The answer is unknowable but...when something is UNSUSTAINABLE it is INEVITABLE that it will END. TIME is the only unknown. The certainty of it ending BADLY is not. Words: 1265; Charts: 6

Money/credit expansion (inflation) is insidious and like an addictive drug. The first effects appear to be pleasant - a seeming increase, if not boom, in business; lower interest rates; more available credit and a decline in unemployment - BUT, unless the monetary stimulus is continued, and probably at increasingly higher doses, the temporary high disappears. Below is a sampling of what eventually happens when central bankers try to 'help' the economy by creating money out of nothing. Words: 799

"In our view, monetary policy has been boxed in by previous actions, election year politics (and even more broadly by the dynamics of the contemporary state of democracy), and the slowdown in global forex accumulation. The result, we expect, will be a continuation of financial repression under the most optimistic of scenarios. At the very least, returns on liquid capital could remain negative for many years to come. Under such circumstances, demand for the protection offered by gold should remain strong. Should the presumed economic recovery falter, we anticipate that the calls for renewed QE will be deafening." John Hathaway

This time is far worse than any other modern recession. What we are seeing now is a depression, despite what the NBER would have you believe. If you are still looking for the “Big One” to happen, you are too late. It happened here and it is still happening here and in Europe. They, like us, have tried to paper over most of the effects of the boom-bust business cycle malinvestment, and they have failed and the piper is at their door [as it is here in the U.S.]. The current economic “good news”, this supposed "recovery", is largely based on fiat money steroids and will not last without continuous injections of new fiat money into the economy. [Let me explain.] Words: 2300

Decisive policies must be urgently put in place to stop the euro area sovereign debt crisis from spreading and to put weakening global activity back on track. [If not we can expect to see a] massive escalation in economic disruption, an increase in the risk of a credit crunch [and] the global economy tipping into a recession. Words: 834

The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate set by Congress of maximum employment and stable prices. During Chairman Bernanke’s most recent press conference he indicated that the Federal Reserve has done a better job of maintaining price stability while falling short of fostering maximum employment. [As such,] we believe the Federal Reserve will continue to increase the monetary base and weaken the dollar as long as unemployment remains elevated. While the economy (measured by real GDP) and the unemployment rate have not benefited from a substantial increase in the monetary base, the price of gold and silver have benefited from money printing. We believe this statement is quite important for monetary policy and for investors. [Let us explain further.] Words: 388

Many lessons can be gleaned from history and, while no two periods are identically alike, there are often many similarities to learn from. The current period, for example, is often compared to the Great Depression in regards to unprecedented government action as well as with the 1970s in regards to trends in commodities and inflation. [Let's take a closer look.] Words: 1165

At present, the governors of the Fed are creating massive distortions in the financial markets with little hope of improving real economic growth or employment... Quantitative easing promises to have little effect except to provoke commodity [gold and silver] hoarding, a decline in bond yields to levels that reflect nothing but risk premiums for maturity risk, and an expansion in stock valuations to levels that have rarely been sustained for long (the current Shiller P/E of 22 for the S&P 500 has typically been followed by 5- to 10-year total returns below 5% annually). [Let me explain.] Words: 3066