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By Monty Pelerin , posted December 3rd, 2009 http://www.economicnoise.com/2009/12/03/the-fed-is-nothing-but-an-atm-machine/ The Fed has reached the point where there are two choices — Allow the government to shut down or allow itself to be the Treasury’s ATM machine. Inflation is, as Milton...
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If a lawless gang of madmen, gamblers and alcoholics seized control of a large company, how would you expect the business to perform? How would you expect the story to end? What if, instead of a company, they seized control of the world's largest economy, thus, to some extent, the world financial...
Posted to
Hera
by
Ron Hera
on
Tue, Dec 1 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: Federal reserve, US dollar, CPI, deflation, inflation, GDP, USDX, central banks, Gold, US economy, central bank
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Inflation changes our perspective of many things, especially numbers. Richard Feynman stated: “There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we...
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… your $200,000 ten years ago has been halved in terms of purchasing power. However, in terms of planning purposes, your anticipated retirement amount has been reduced by 75%. Given these outcomes, who will be able to retire? And for those already retired, how many will “unretire?”...
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Those arguing that inflation is not a problem are either disingenuous, blind or cheerleading for Washington. Inflation is not happening in wages, nor is it happening in many products where the misallocation of capital has caused oversupply (real estate being just one example). It is happening in financial...
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Stocks are off about 80% from their peak, at least as measured in ounces of gold. This chart shows the Dow priced in ounces of gold. Currently, it takes just under 10 ounces of gold to “buy” the Dow. Over time, this ratio has ranged from 1 to over 40. Some investors use this relationship...
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There is little doubt in my mind that we are heading for a train wreck. The timing and catalyst that trigger this reaction are much more difficult to determine. The potential catalysts are many, any one of which would trigger the wreck. A dollar crisis or a Treasury fund-raising crisis (likely to appear...
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The fact that investors around the world are turning to gold is remarkable. Unlike a bond, stored gold offers no yield and, unlike a stock, gold provides no leverage to the performance of an enterprise. Buying gold is not an investment per se, compared, for example, to buying a gold mining stock, where...
Posted to
Hera
by
Ron Hera
on
Fri, Nov 13 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: Federal reserve, US dollar, inflation, Asia, USDX, Gold, IMF, Bretton Woods, ETF, USGS, US economy, gold lease, SDR, GFMS, central bank, CBGA, LBMA
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The US economy has been in crisis since 2008 and despite optimistic statements by officials and commentators there are no fundamental signs that the crisis will end in the foreseeable future. Current economic data suggests a number of diverging and unsustainable trends. The US economy has suffered a...
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Bob Murphy asks what we should call the upcoming severe recession and inflation : I think we are in store for a very severe recession (i.e. depression) and very big price increases. It will be stagflation but worse. So we need a catchy term. The two contenders I've come up with are infression and...
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In my previous post I spoke about the role of interest rates in balancing the supply of real savings (from depositors) and demand for those savings on the part of borrowers (investors): What's difficult to grasp here is that savings are not just abstract dollar notes. When I save, I am implicitly...
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Economics is not a complicated science. This may not seem obvious to you if you've following the news from Washington, where a cabal of politicians, financiers and lobbyists have been spent the last several weeks desperately making a series of increasingly complicated, expensive, and ultimately unsuccessful...
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There's much to be said about the current financial crisis. At the heart of this, as every Austrian knows, is the fault the US government holds for creating the current situation through its central bank and its inflationary policy. This fundamental economic truth cannot be stated enough. Ignorance...
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The term "Demand Destruction" strikes me as a bit absurd. For example, let's say Bob & Joe are going to make a simple trade. Bob produces apples and Joe gives haircuts. The terms of the trade are 10 apples for 1 haircut. Bob's supply of 10 apples are also his demand . Without the...
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What if the Fed set a goal for themselves to contain inflation at 3%? Let's assume (and this is a huge assumption) that government can control its spending to the point where 3% inflation is maintained. Is this the ticket to success? Well let's see: Artificial booms would still exist. Businessmen...