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WSJ Slams Bernanke’s Rambling Blog Post: “Stop Blaming Everyone” For Your Mistake
WSJ Slams Bernanke’s Rambling Blog Post: “Stop Blaming Everyone” For Your Mistake
The mainstream is beginning to sound a lot like some fringe blog… A week after the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund unleashed a tirade against high-frequency trading and monetary policy distortions, The Wall Street Journal has penned an Op-Ed ramping up its war against Bernanke (and The Fed). What next? Cats living with dogs, mass hysteria, the dead rising from the grave?
Bernanke threw the first punch… and it landed. Now The Wall Street Journal counters with a colossal combination…
It’s nice to know we’re being read, and Thursday’s editorial on “The Slow-Growth Fed” sure got a rise out of Ben Bernanke. The former Federal Reserve Chairman turned blogger turned Pimco adviser wrote to defend the central bank and by implication his policies as innocent of responsibility for subpar economic growth.
This is fun, so let’s parse the Revered One’s arguments. First, Mr. Bernanke accuses us of “forecasting a breakout in inflation” at least since 2006. The central banker is getting into the polemical swing, but he’s wild with that one. We’re not always right. But we’ve been careful not to join some of our friends in predicting inflation from the Fed’s post-crisis policies. We’ve written that we are in uncharted monetary territory with risks and outcomes we lack the foresight to predict.
Our view has been that the Fed’s first round of quantitative easing was necessary to stem the financial panic—and that it worked. We were skeptical of the later bouts of QE, and in our view these have been notably less successful in helping the economy return to robust health. Asset prices are up and the wealthy are better off, but the working stiff is still waiting for the economic payoff.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Get Ready For Negative Interest Rates In The US
Get Ready For Negative Interest Rates In The US
With Fed mouthpiece Jon Hilsenrath warning – in no lesser status-quo narrative-deliverer than The Wall Street Journal – that The ECB’s actions (and pre-emptive collapse in the EUR) means the U.S. economy must deal with a rapidly strengthening dollar that will make American goods more expensive abroad, potentially slowing both U.S. growth and inflation; and Treasury Secretary Lew coming out his crypt to mention “unfair FX moves,” it appears The Fed (and powers that be) are worrying about King Dollar. This suggests, as Mises Canada’s Patrick Barron predicts, the Fed will start charging negative interest rates on bank reserve accounts as the final tool in the war on savings and wealth in order to spur the Keynesian goal of increasing “aggregate demand”. If savers won’t spend their money, the government will take it from them.
As The Wall Street Journal explains,
The European Central Bank’s launch of an aggressive program this week to buy more than €1 trillion in bonds poses important tests for the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve.Europe’s new program of money printing—and the resulting fall in the euro—means the U.S. economy must deal with a rapidly strengthening dollar that will make American goods more expensive abroad.
The stronger dollar could slow both U.S. growth and inflation, giving the Fed some incentive to hold off on its plan to raise short-term interest rates later this year from near zero.
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A stronger dollar has three important implications for the U.S. economy, markets and policy makers. First, it tamps down inflation just as the Fed is trying to raise inflation closer to 2%. Second, it hurts exports and therefore economic growth. Lastly, the attraction of U.S. financial assets could heat up markets just as regulators keep watch for dangerous asset bubbles.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Why Chinese Growth Forecasts Just Crashed To A Paltry 3.9% – And Are Going Even Lower – In One | ZeroHedge
Up until a few years ago, conventional wisdom was that China would grow at nearly double digits as long as the eye could see. Then, however, something happened, and China’s 9% growth became 8%, then 7% and even lower, as suddenly the Politburo made it quite clear China would not chase growth at any cost, especially when the cost is trillions in bad debt and other NPLs, as we have explained time and again. The collapse in Chinese growth expectations is shown best on the following formerly hockeysticking chart of IMF’s revised Chinese growth projections which has completely collapsed in the past few years.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
