Tag Archives: central bank policies

It’s Easier to “Print” Money to Make Refrigerators, by Bill Bonner

Posted on September 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Who needs refrigerator manufacturers and other real businesses when you’ve got a central bank? From Bill Bonner at rogueeconomics.com:

What we are wondering today is what’s ahead for the U.S. economy – inflation or deflation? Maybe the Evergrande story will give us a clue.

To fully understand the Evergrande story, you almost have to understand the whole story…

…of how, in 1971, the U.S. switched to a “flexible” dollar that it could print at will…

…and how the switch created a boom in China… and a bust in U.S. manufacturing (it’s easier to “print” money than to make refrigerators).

In an honest economy, pre-1971, the U.S. had to repatriate its dollars by offering equivalent quantities of goods and services to the Chinese…

…or risk having to settle up in gold.

Concrete River

But with the new system… it could just print up more dollars… which the Chinese, bless their hearts, used to buy U.S. bonds…

All this money created a boom in China… which quickly got out its cement trucks. The concrete flowed like the Yangtze.

We saw the construction boom on our trip to China in 2014 – a breathtaking display of human industry and material progress.

The highways were new. The buildings were new. The trains… docks… factories – all new. You could scarcely find a house more than 18 months old.

Never in the history of the world had so many people gone from being so poor to so rich in so short a time. Per capita income rose from $318 in 1990 to $10,500 in 2020.

And never in history had so much money been borrowed to make it happen. From $1.7 trillion of total debt in 2000, China now owes nearly $50 trillion. Its debt-to-GDP ratio now stands at 335%.

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The funny-money game, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on September 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

Eventually fiat-debt-blown bubbles pop, and down go bond, stock, and most other financial asset prices. One non-financial asset that will keep you in good stead will be precious metals. From Alasdair Macleod at goldmoney.com:

The sense of general unease that I detect among those I meet and discuss economics and financial matters with is increasing —with good reason. Clearly, what everyone calls inflation, rising prices or more accurately currency debasement, will lead to higher interest rates, threatening markets which are unmistakably in bubble territory.

The consequences of rising prices and interest rates are still being badly underestimated.

In this article I get to the source of the inflation problem, which is the monetary debasement of the dollar and other major currencies. An important part of the problem is that mathematical economists have lost sight of what their beloved statistics represent —none more so than with GDP.

I explain why GDP is simply the total of accumulating currency and credit which is wrongly taken reflect economic progress – there being no such thing as economic growth. Once that point is grasped, the significance of this basic error becomes clear, and the fiat currency paradigm is revealed for what it is: a funny-money game that will go horribly wrong.

There is only one escape from it, and that is to own the one form of money that is no one’s counterparty risk; the one form of money that always comes to humanity’s rescue when fiat fails.

And that is gold. It is neglected by nearly everyone because it is the anti-bubble. The more that people believe in fiat-denominated assets, the less they believe in gold. That is until their funny-money games implode, inevitably triggered by sharply rising interest rates.

Introduction

Those of us with grey hairs gained in financial markets can, or should, recognise that after fifty years the funny-money game is ending. Accelerated money printing has led to what greenhorn commentators call inflation. It is not, as they claim, rising prices: they are the consequence of the monetary expansion which was the original and remains the correct definition of inflation.

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Central Bank Visions of Absolute Control, by MN Gordon

Posted on September 10, 2021 | Leave a comment

The “potent director” fallacy is ascribing powers to someone or to a group that they don’t really have. Perhaps the most widespread one is the idea that central banks control economies. They don’t. From MN Gordon at economicprism.com:

There’s not much you can do in the year 2021 that doesn’t leave a digital trail.  The collusion of big tech and big government has assured this.

Still, there does remain one simple way to elude the busybodies.  In fact, one of the last ways to preserve some level of economic privacy is to pay with cash.

Because when you pay with cash the authorities cannot monitor and track what you buy.  They don’t know if the cash you pulled from the ATM was stuffed in your mattress, or used to buy groceries or ammo or silver coins.  What’s more, the authorities don’t like this.

The control freak central planners want to know what you are buying, and where and when you are buying.  They also want to know how much you spend down to the very last cent.  A digital dollar, coupled with the abolition of cash, would allow them to do this.  Moreover, it would provide them the ability to have full control over every transaction you make.

For example, if a purchase falls outside of the parameters established by the digital dollar’s monitoring algorithm, it could be cancelled on the spot.  Should an attempted purchase not align with the buyers social credit score it would not go through.  Are you overweight?  Then no glazed donuts for you.

To be clear, digital dollars would have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies or decentralized finance.  Rather, digital dollars would be issued by the Federal Reserve and would allow the Fed to monitor and control every transaction you make.

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Four Unreported Signs Paper Money is Dying, by Matthew Piepenburg

Posted on September 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Any so-called asset whose value, based on historical precedent, is destined for zero is therefore destined to die. From Matthew Piepenburg at goldswitzerland.com:

Below, we look at four deliberately ignored reasons why extreme liquidity is drowning paper money.

Reason 1: The Taper Debate May Not be a Debate at All

Here, we look past the taper headlines and ask a simple question: Would a Fed “tapering” of QE really matter?

As we’ve written elsewhere, the Great Taper Debate is less of a debate than it is a pundit circus, forever fueling now classic yet complimentary debates on inflation vs. deflation, gold vs. the dollar and Fed-speak vs. honesty.

Of course, such topics, including the great “taper,” are all critical issues worthy of opposing views and somber discussions.

The world needs open, transparent and respectful (as opposed to tyrannical) debate, now more than ever.

If the Fed, for example, were to taper money printing, it’s logical to assume (and argue) that this would mean falling bonds, rising rates, deflationary forces, a stronger dollar and massive headwinds for risk assets like stocks and real estate.

But for many who are not otherwise deeply ensconced into the weeds of Wall Street (i.e., normal, smart and conscientious investors), what they may not know is this: The Fed has other tricks up its liquidity sleeve than just “QE.”

Stated otherwise, the taper fears as well as taper debate may not be as central to the central bank debate as one might think.

Why?

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Quantitative easing: how the world got hooked on magicked-up money, by Ann Pettifor

Posted on July 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Central banking is a gateway drug to quantitative easing and then, perpetual debt monetization. From Ann Pettifor at prospectmagazine.co.uk:

Going cold turkey would finish off a dysfunctional global financial system that’s now hopelessly addicted to emergency infusions. The only solution is surgery on the system itself

The world economy is a mess. The system, notionally governed by the invisible hand of the market, is no longer governed in any meaningful way: private excess puffs up bubbles that government indulgence ensures can never burst. We seem condemned to volatile commodity prices, wild capital flows, worsening imbalances in trade, taxation and income, and—before long—the next sovereign debt crisis. And then there’s inequality. During lockdown, the total wealth of billionaires rose by $5 trillion to $13 trillion in 12 months, the most dramatic surge ever registered on the annual Forbes billionaire list.

Where do such riches come from? Compared to before the pandemic, there’s less real economic activity: we are collectively poorer. And yet within a year of the great panic of March 2020, many asset prices were surging. Wall Street and the City of London are again awash with liquidity—and in a speculative mood. One vogue is for something called SPACs, or “special purpose acquisition companies.” That sounds so vague as to bring to mind the South Sea Bubble companies of 1720, whose pitch is remembered as “carrying on an undertaking of great advantage but nobody to know what it is.”

How is this mismatch between financial markets and underlying reality possible? Because just like in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the civil servants in our central banks spotted the dreadful potential of unchecked panic, and rode to the rescue of private speculators by flushing the system with made-up money through a process we’ve come to know as quantitative easing.

Commentators on both the right and the left are increasingly fixated on the role of QE. In a way, that’s understandable. The policy—deployed on and off ever since the financial crash—has been pursued to an extraordinary degree in the face of Covid-19. By this June, the US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet had doubled in size since the pandemic began, and has now swelled by 800 per cent since 2007.

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The Blind Leading the Clueless, by Jeff Thomas

Posted on July 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Our rulers aren’t that smart, and a case can be made that they’re getting stupider all the time. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

Blind leading the clueless

Most of us watch television. In part, we seek to be entertained, but, additionally, we often seek to be enlightened as to “what’s going on.” In a difficult era like the present one, in which some of the most prominent countries are experiencing the onset of an economic crisis, virtual cartoon characters are competing as choices in political contests, governments are becoming increasingly rapacious and a police state is developing rapidly, it’s not surprising if the average person questions, “What on earth are they thinking?”

Well, there’s no shortage of media exposure to answer that question. Today, there are a multitude of channels offering 24/7 “news,” from which we may hope to glean some insight as to what the leaders of the world are thinking. Yet, in spite of the endless folderol being offered, the leadership vision remains about as clear as mud.

They don’t want war, but are invading more countries than ever before in history. Political hopefuls are vague at best regarding their proposed platforms for action, yet they attack each other as though they’re reporters for the tabloids. Governments continually speak of their wish to lighten the load on the common man, whilst heaping laws, regulations, fines and taxes on him like never before, and whilst heaping billions in tax dollars on their cronies in the financial industry. They claim to seek greater security for all, but instead, create an endless stream of agencies that have the authority to ignore basic rights and behave more like Mafia shakedown operators than law enforcers. Governments claim to be pursuing a sounder economy, but have created an unprecedented level of debt, that promises to crush the economies of several of the world’s most prominent countries in the very near future.

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The Bubble Epoch Gets Worse, by Bill Bonner

Posted on June 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

The problem with serial bubble blowing by central banks is that each bubble has to be bigger than the previous ones to keep them all from popping. From Bill Bonner at rogueeconomics.com:

YOUGHAL IRELAND – Yes, it’s the age of miracles. The Bubble Epoch. The silly season.

And it just gets sillier and sillier.

Christine Lagarde, who holds the top spot at the European Central Bank (ECB), announced that she’s going to continue pumping up the money supply by 17 billion euros per week.

She says it is going to add 1.8% to Europe’s growth over the next two years. That is, somehow the fake money will be magically transformed into real wealth.

How does she know that?

Strange Voodoo

Oh, Dear Reader, is that a serious question? Of course, she has no idea…

And by the way, if her €17 billion per week would add precisely 1.8% to the economy, why not print €18 billion and get 1.9%, we wonder? Or €100 billion?

Apparently, none of the journalists who cover the ECB thought to ask… So we’ll just have to go on wondering.

What strange voodoo is this… that 17 billion per week is the exact number of euros needed to raise GDP by 1.8%?

A Good Deal

Meanwhile, her co-delusional over in the U.S., Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, says he’s going to continue the money-printing, too – at the rate of $30 billion per week.

His aim is to hit 2% inflation – not 2.1%, not 1.9% – which he’s convinced is some sort of sacred number guaranteeing uninterrupted growth and full employment.

What it actually guarantees is higher prices, as we see in the asset markets. The S&P 500 just hit another new all-time high. As did house prices.

The Fed is buying $40 billion worth of mortgage bonds each month, driving down mortgage rates to the point where you can get a 15-year mortgage at a negative rate.

That is, your mortgage interest will be less than the going rate of consumer price inflation.

A good deal? Apparently.

And it’s likely to be a better deal if tomorrow’s inflation makes today’s mortgage rates even more negative.

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Big Government and Big Inflation, by Ron Paul

Posted on May 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

There’s not much hope monetary inflation will recede. Congress keeps spending and the government keeps borrowing. From Ron Paul at ronpaulinstitute.org:

April’s 4.2 percent past year increase in the Consumer Price Index is not likely to dissuade the Federal Reserve from continuing its policy of near-zero interest rates. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell believes the rising prices are just a temporary phenomenon caused by the ending of lockdowns releasing pent-up consumer demand.

Powell may be right that the ending of lockdowns would inevitably be accompanied by a rise in prices. However, this is just the latest reason the Fed has given for putting off increasing interest rates. Powell does not want to admit that the real reason the Fed will continue to keep rates low is that increasing rates will cause the federal government’s interest payments to rise to unsustainable levels.

One way the Fed increases the money supply — and thus lowers interest rates — is by purchasing US Treasury securities. These purchases increase demand for US government debt, keeping government’s borrowing costs low. An expansionary monetary policy thus enables increased federal spending and deficits. Since the lockdowns, the Fed has worked overtime to monetize federal debt, doubling its holdings of Treasury securities.

A Truth in Accounting report from April concluded the real federal debt is 123 trillion dollars — over four times larger than the 28 trillion dollars “official” debt. The higher debt calculation includes the federal government’s unfunded liabilities. The biggest unfunded liabilities are the 55 trillion dollars in promised but unfunded Medicare benefits and the 41 trillion dollars in promised but unfunded Social Security benefits.

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Three reasons why inflation is rising. Two of them aren’t going away, by Simon Black

Posted on May 9, 2021 | 1 comment

Massive debt monetization, the font of inflation, will continue far into the future. From Simon Black at sovereignman.com:

A remarkable thing happened yesterday that tells you everything you need to know about inflation.

In the morning, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated bluntly that “interest rates will have to rise somewhat to make sure that our economy doesn’t overheat. . .”

For economists, an ‘overheating economy’ means inflation. So she was essentially saying that rates would have to rise to prevent inflation.

Yet hours later, she completely reversed herself, saying that interest rates would NOT have to rise because “I don’t think there’s going to be an inflationary problem.”

You don’t need a PhD in economics to smell the BS.

Inflation is not some potential issue down the road. Inflation is already here.

As Warren Buffett told investors only days ago, “We’re seeing very substantial inflation.”

Plenty of companies have already announced price increases to their consumers–

Proctor & Gamble, for instance, announced price hikes across the board on just about everything from diapers to beauty creams.

Hershey’s announced in February that it would be raising prices.

Food giant General Mills complained in February about a “higher inflationary environment” and “input cost pressures” due to rising commodity prices.

Clorox, Shake Shack, Kimberly-Clark, Whirlpool, Hormel, and Woka Kola Coca Cola are among the many companies that have also announced price increases.

And according to Bank of America Global Research, the number of mentions of “inflation” on corporate earnings calls has increased 800% compared to last year.

Inflation is clearly a concern of the largest companies in the world. Investors are worried. Consumers can see it.

And in a rare moment of truth yesterday morning, a politician almost admitted that she was concerned about inflation too.

This is not some wild conspiracy. Inflation is real. It’s happening. Let’s look at three key drivers:

1) Capacity Constraints

Last year the entire world shut down. Businesses and factories everywhere closed, and plenty of companies went out of business.

Many companies who survived took radical steps to conserve cash– laying off workers, liquidating inventory, and selling equipment.

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Rising bond yields threaten financial markets, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on May 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

There is no worse investment on the planet right now than longer-term bonds. If something else doesn’t upset the apple cart first, rising interest rates will raze the financial house of cards, to mix metaphors. From Alasdair Macleod at goldmoney.com:

There is a growing recognition in financial circles that price inflation will increase significantly in the near future, and official estimates that it will be a temporary phenomenon limited to an average of 2% are overly optimistic. There is, therefore, increasing speculation about the need for interest rates to rise.

The bond yield on 10-year US Treasuries has already more than doubled over the last year. It is in the nature of market cycles for equity and other financial assets to continue to rise in value during an initial increase in bond yields. It is the second increase that can be expected to turn bullish optimism about the economic outlook into the beginning of a bear market. Financial markets, already dislocated from fundamental realities, appear to be acutely vulnerable to such a change in sentiment.

This article points out that equity markets are driven more by money flows rather than perceived economic prospects. Bank credit for industry is contracting, commodity prices are soaring, and supply chains remain disrupted. Fuelled by earlier expansions of money supply and further expansions to come, the world faces a far larger increase in price inflation than currently contemplated, and therefore far higher interest rates, threatening to destabilise both financial markets and fiat currencies.

Introduction

There is a rustling in the undergrowth, disturbing the sylvan setting where we complacently enjoy the dappled sunlight, innocently unaware of the prowling bear. The bear heralds another rise in bond yields as we grapple with the inflationary consequences of recent and current events.

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