What do you think the impact of commodities inflation will be on China’s overall growth story?
Printing money is going to have an effect on commodity prices, there is no question about that. Throughout history whenever governments have printed money it’s led to rising commodities prices, and now the whole world is printing money. Food inventories are the lowest they’ve been in a decade, farmers can’t get loans, you can’t get a loan to open up a new mine – it’s not hard to see that prices are going to rise ...
You’ve spoken out rather strongly against the American stimulus package, how do you feel about the Chinese stimulus package?
China is different from the US. China saved up money for a rainy day; now it is rainy and they are spending their reserves. The US — well the US had no money saved — but China is also spending the money in a smarter way, developing infrastructure and expanding capacity to use down the road. The US is focusing on make-work programs and things that will appeal to voters but do nothing for the economy. I’m not in favor of any stimulus programs, but as they’re a fact of life, I think the Chinese have done a better job.
Black Monday one year on: what’s in sight?
September 15 marks the economic 9/11 that shook the US last year. Global financial services firm Lehman Brothers collapsed and became a symbol of the largest bankruptcy in American history.
It also caused a global downturn which many were not prepared for. The past year has seen global economies brought to their knees ...
As for the United States, President Barack Obama is optimistic about the country’s situation:
“We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break,” he said on Monday, speaking at Wall Street in New York.
Despite the positivity, some say recovery and relief are nowhere in sight ... “It hasn't ended. That was only the beginning. We are going to see a lot more. There is no recovery, it's a cover-up. They're covering it up with stimulus packages, with buy outs, with bailouts – it’s not going to fix the problem,” Gerald Celente believes.
Fifteen million people in America are jobless, and what caused this did not happen overnight.
“Let's put it this way: in order to have a 20 to 30 trillion dollar global blow-up, you don't have a few bad apples and you don't have a few simple mistakes – you have everybody basically bought in on a system that’s fundamentally unsound,” says New York-based financial analyst and journalist Max Wolff.
Ground Hog Ben: Fed Declares Depression Over
That's it folks. Wrap it up. This here recession…er...correction…ER depress…oh, whatever...is over.
No one fails. Ain't life great?
Except for ... No jobs.
What kind of recovery is that, you ask?
It's the new deadbeat, can't-get-a job, rocketing-inflation, trashed-currency, can't-sell-my-house, can't-make-my-payments, bankrupt-mafia-government, kazillions-in-debt, trade-warring-with-China recovery – that's what it is. Glad you asked.
It's kind of a new thing. No one's really tried it so far, but they're doing it in Europe, we hear. And maybe a bit of it in Asia. But it's back here in the US of A that we've got the whole thing down. Right here in Washington ... we'll be getting the full Bernanke on it – at least, that's the buzz.
Of course, being a Princeton professor and religious and a pretty nice guy from all we've heard, Ben couldn't bring himself to tell an outright whopper. He let the truth out dribble-drabble at the end.
Something about "impaired credit".... and "head winds".... and "digging out from personal debt".... and "ongoing adjustments"..... and "unwinding massive stimulus efforts".... and "risking igniting inflation".... and "lingering high unemployment".... and "sluggish outlook".... and "higher gas prices" and.... "consumer reluctance".... and "widespread job insecurity".... and "significantly impaired credit".... and "less lending".... and "higher costs".... and "deep freeze in credit".... and "fearing defaults."
Yeah ... Like the old geezer just needs a shot of Viagra ...
[U]nlike the Greek demigods of yore, today's central bankers are mere mortals who must work within the confines and constraints of the institution that they head.
While they present an aura of invincibility, the truth is that the effectiveness of their policies faces severe limits.
Conventionally, a central bank pursues its goal of price stability by adjusting the money supply to alter the discount rate indirectly, thus making lending more or less attractive. The recent crisis draws attention to a secondary function of these banks — namely, as a lender of last resort.
After the Lehman Brothers collapse of September 2008, central banks of the world intervened in a united effort to swap bad, illiquid assets from the private banking sector for higher-quality government debt. While this process proceeded unhindered in its early stages, central banks soon found themselves with declining balances of higher-quality debt to swap. The lone tool remaining to combat the liquidity crisis was a quantitative expansion — increasing the money supply, and thus making fresh liquidity available to the banking system for retiring its liabilities.
The possibility of an insolvent central bank, however, bypasses the question of whether the central bank should be abolished and concludes that it will, in certain instances, abolish itself as insolvency renders it helpless ...
Fed Threatens Depression, $100 Bills Worthless
Don't Steal, the Government Hates Competition. ~ Plaque on the desk of Rep. Ron Paul
Judging by the plaque on the desk of Ron Paul, R-TX, the so-called (by his detractors) "Doctor No" of the Congress, one would think he hates government. But, as he shows in his latest book, End the Fed ... [however] he doesn't hate government, he just wants it to do what the Constitution says it should do – nothing more and nothing less.
One institution that he thinks is not only unconstitutional, but philosophically, economically and morally wrong is the Federal Reserve System, established in 1913 – the same year as the federal income tax – as a backdoor approach to a central bank. It was developed – like the various czars, Troubled Asset Rescue Program (TARP) and bailouts of car companies and banks – in response to a financial depression, one that occurred in 1907.
In the post-meltdown world, Paul says it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve. Throughout the book – and especially in the last chapter, "The Way Out," Paul shows how the nation functioned just fine without a central bank. The states don't have central banks and must rely on tax revenue to live within their means, he says ... Too, arguments that a central bank would prevent financial panics certainly haven't come true in the almost 100 years we've had the Fed.
Questioning the Fed is like questioning Mom, apple pie and the American way to most people who are unaware of its genesis at a meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910. Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country's economy could not properly function ...
[...] about Barack Obama as of September 21, 2009 Fifteen Million People in America are Jobless! – the-classic-liberal.com 09/22/2009 Jim Rogers What do you think the impact of commodities [...]