Category Archives: Outside Commentaries

“‘The poll really explains why people are feeling on the sidelines and so despondent,’ said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York.

Polling has found that most people are wary of whether Washington can assist, but the new survey has constituents questioning whether any part of the American system can be a big help.”

“Central bankers are completely insane… These are people who are professors, academics who never worked a single day in their life in an ordinary job. Because money printing doesn’t help ordinary people . . . it helps asset prices… My sense is that central banks are unlikely to tighten because they’re in such deep shit already and they will continue to print.”

“Gold has been in a downturn for more than two years now, resulting in the lowest investor sentiment in a long while. Hardcore goldbugs find no explanation in the big-picture financial numbers of government deficits and money creation, which should be supportive to gold. I have an explanation for why gold has been down – and why that is about to reverse itself. I’m convinced that now is the best time to invest in gold again.”

“The original sin with regard to Fed powers was the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978 signed by President Carter. This created the “dual mandate” which allowed the Fed to consider employment as well as price stability in setting policy. The dual mandate allows the Fed to manage the U.S. jobs market and, by extension, the economy as a whole, instead of confining itself to straightforward liquidity operations. Janet Yellen, the incoming Fed chairwoman, is a strong advocate of the dual mandate and has emphasized employment targets in the setting of Fed policy. Through the dual mandate and her embrace of it, and using the dollar’s unique role as leverage, she is a de facto central planner for the world.

Like all central planners, she will fail. Yellen’s greatest deficiency is that she does not use practical rules. Instead she uses esoteric economic models that do not correspond to reality.”