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Ratigan And Fleckenstein Explain The Fed's Role In Recent Food Price Ignited Revolutions
For over a year now, Zero Hedge has been predicting that in its foolhardy attempt of "inflation or bust", the Fed's actions would sooner or later lead to mass rioting and possible revolutions as a result of surging and out of control food prices (which are just the peak of the alternative investment pyramid - yes, stunningly free money can go into other things besides stocks). There have been those who have claimed that deflation is still a far greater force, despite that the all important shadow banking system made a positive inflection point in ending deleveraging in Q3 (and on March 10 we will know whether the Q3 strength persisted into Q4) as was discussed previously, and today's first time in over two years increase in revolving credit merely confirms this view. Alas, to all who believe that deflation or deleveraging is a greater threat: you have our sympathies, as fundamentally your are correct, and were the business cycle have the benefit of playing out in normal course, all the world's banks would become insolvent and yes, deflation would be rampaging. The problem is that these same people do not realize that to Bernanke (whom we have referred Genocide Ben for precisely this reason) there is no other alternative, and inflation must be achieved no matter how terrible the social cost, or the damage to the monetary system. Regardless, the actions in North Africa are just the start. Commodities will run up far higher, and discontent will sooner or later reach to Asia, and possibly to countries which have nuclear arsenals at their disposal. What happens then is anyone guess. Yet for anyone who is still confused about the ultimate Fed agenda, Dylan Ratigan and Bill Fleckenstein sat down late last week to make it so clear that virtually anyone and everyone can understand what the Bernanke endgame is.
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I'll take that bet..........they won't pay any more attention. We're now at the heart of College Basketball conference play, followed by conference tournaments and March Madness.
The powers that be have this whole thing amazingly well timed don't they?
Nope. Basketball season is in full swing, then baseball starts. The Emperor needs spectacles to amuse the masses and keep them distracted.
One circus ends just as another begins.
blame the double post on the pathetic 500kb connection I have.. if I am lucky
The governments are trying desperatly to create poverty driven revolutions by starvation of the poor in various countries, but at the same time trying to control these revolts by given nearby poor handouts.. SNAP
http://www.tellmehowto.net/howto/play_snap_4354
It is fitting that the word is a game played snap and the world is played
snap
Sun T'su
don't fight the Fed.....yeah right.
testing 123
Fleck said Banksters.
My friends in materials intensive industries tell me their costs are soaring and since they are unwilling/unable to pass along the bulk of the costs, they are cutting back on discretionary expenses like marketing, engineering development, R&D and the like. So Ungentle Ben is reflating the commodities bubble and supporting the bankstas, and killing the very professions that this country needs to grow, i.e. science research, engineering et al so he's killing employment with liquidity-driven cost increases.
He is thus helping commodity-producing countries earn so much money that they can invest in those areas, further eroding the USA's ability to compete
Who gave this man the right to dictate industrial policy? Who gave this man the right to unilaterally declare a 100% tax on all interest income above 1.1%? Who gave this man the right to wreck fixed-income citizens with effective wage cuts through food and energy price increases?
Um, we did. Well, not just us. Our parents. Their parents too. Goes way back.
The Founding Fathers had it right. Small group of clean thinkers tried to do right for a new nation. Put together a Constitution that tightly limited government power. But they relied on the citizens to police the government; we needed to watch them like hawks and keep them honest. We didn't, the result is this slippery slope thingy, and after two hundred plus years of our government bureaucracy doing what they all do (bloat & encroach), here we are. Severe lack of policing by the population has allowed thieves and ruffians to assume control of our lives.
Complacency has its consequences.
@SWCroaker. Yes you're right to observe that. But I wonder did we lose oversight of policing or were we lulled into a Faustian deal where politicians appealed to the parasitic class, offering them the fruits of redistributed earnings, while sucking out the efforts of the productive class? I think both what you observe, and the what I've postulated, might be the twin devils.The question is -- is there a road back in eithe case?
Congress, at the behest of Big Banks.
Pass the tissue, the World Bankers shell company is in full force.
Opening Statement to the Executive Board (JS - 08/11/10)
"...FAO last week announced that its Food Price Index in October hit the highest level in 27 months and prices are just a few points away from the record highs of 2008, with increases in global cereal, sugar and soybean prices. There is consensus that volatility and therefore continued vulnerability are now the norm in global food supply. Each and every one of us in this room play a vital role in ensuring all people have access to adequate nutritious food. This is a sacred trust that the world has placed in us.
http://www.wfp.org/content/wfp-executive-director-josette-sheeran-opening-statement-executive-board-session-november-8-
A shell company is an accomplice you ask to hold money while your being frisked down.
Why is Fleck afraid to call Bernanke a "Liar"?
Be cognizant of the impact ot miners. Inputs explode, 1970's here we are x 100.
Watch Barrick and Goldcorp this month when they report. That'll tell us whether to bail on the stock side of gold.
I'm not yet convinced however, that we won't see a deflationary event again here. Remember that in the Great depression the banks returned the unused stimulus in 1933.
The spec desks of the investment banks are causing this. Any comment.
I guess I'm wondering if we won't see flations of all kinds.
Fuck what a mess,
Hedonic adjustment.
"What happens then is anyone guess." hmmm.. even Albert Pike's guess???
Pike to Mazzini, 1873:
"The First World War must be brought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Czars in Russia and of making that country a fortress of atheistic Communism. The divergences caused by the "agentur" (agents) of the Illuminati between the British and Germanic Empires will be used to foment this war. At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used in order to destroy the other governments and in order to weaken the religions."
"The Second World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the Fascists and the political Zionists. This war must be brought about so that Nazism is destroyed and that the political Zionism be strong enough to institute a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, International Communism must become strong enough in order to balance Christendom, which would be then restrained and held in check until the time when we would need it for the final social cataclysm."
"The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion…We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time."
Albert Pike used the term 'Nazism' in 1873?
*1871
Look People, Dylan's piece laid it open even before Flect came on.
He showed a graphic that outlined the situation:
1) Banksters buy politicians
2) policiticians sell out main street to cover the banksters leveraged bad bets
3) Ben goes up and lies his head off (there's no ZeroHedge or anyone to say
"get the fuck outta here" when Ben spues out his lies because only propaganda media is allowed to question him).
4) unmentioned by Dylan...but behind the scenes Fannie & Freddie gobble up the bankster vomit and charge it to Main St. (that's you & me). The banksters have arranged this of course... way to go timmie gueithner.
5) meanwhile, banksters puppet obama plays hoops, or goes on billion dollar junkets... whatever.
Oh.. and the U.S. keeps pissing keeps away billions in "foreign aid" each year down a rathole to keep imperial america in power. It goes on and on .. no matter how many Americans are living on the streets.
That's "change you can believe in".
.
For anyone who reads the Economist, this is my letter sent to them earlier today in response to their recent editorial on inflation. I can't stand reading apologist drivel like that.
Dear sirs,
It is disappointing to see an article on inflation that does not address the monetary creation mechanism, the rate of overall credit expansion and the potential for loss of faith in currency. These are clearly what central bankers should be focused on, not the value of the much-adjusted consumer price index.
Even more disappointing is that you use this disingenuous analysis of inflation to justify the conclusion that emerging markets should protect themselves from the inflation that is largely being created to fund massive deficit spending in the West by reining in their fiscal spending: in other words the rich world needs to spend more while the poor world needs to cut back.
In addition to the case of inflation, you similarly refuse to address the role of monetary debasement in inequality where easy money is funding massive gains for those in control of the monetary process or people close to them.
I won't be renewing my subscription to your magazine. As much as I value the high quality global reporting, I cannot stomach nor financially support the editorial apologies for an utterly dysfunctional and unethical financial system.
gjp
The Economist is a propaganda mouthpiece for the Bilderberg Group. They will never, ever discuss why our financial system is utterly dysfunctional and unethical.
It's a good letter. You might consider it a compromise of your principles, but had you left out the last paragraph, the odds of it being printed, and getting a much wider audience than the editorial review committee, would have been considerably higher.
Perhaps this would have bordered on being obsequious, but a last paragraph might have read:
"Had your article taken these important factors into consideration, it would have been a far more accurate primer on the real causes of inflation that now hobble consumers everywhere from the gas pump to the streets of Cairo."
I've sent them more temperate letters in the past, never been printed. Even with a change in the last paragraph, I think the accusation of disingenuousness would be enough to guarantee it winds up in the dustbin. No, I'm happy even if it sinks into the review committee's (or just one reviewers) thick skin for a brief second or two that they are culpable for their propoganda.
Does wheat supply actually make any difference in the price? One would think that massive shortfalls in Russia (the third largest exporter of grains) might actually have a tiny impact on prices given such structurally high elasticity of price vs demand (and low level of substitution at smaller price movements).
Historical data for price elasticity can explain 100% of the move in grain prices over the past year. Somehow people are ignoring the 2008 rise in wheat prices which peaked a few dozen percent higher than current price (before falling back).
Some uprisings may be "bread riots" but not all wheat price gains have anything to do with monetization, and not all "bread riots" really have bread prices at their roots.
True. Thus are all bubbles formed. Ponzi's stamp arbitrage WAS real, just insignificant compared to his scheme. There are food supply problems. All the freshly printed hot money is sloshing into commodities in part because of that...and, of course, cuz hot money's gots ta go somewhere.
Note that Egypt is the world's #1 importer of wheat:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/agr_gra_whe_imp-agriculture-grains-whe...
Egypt has been one of the world's largest wheat importers for years - not just recently (Egypt has the highest per capita consumption of wheat globally). Wheat is seen as a strategic commodity and the bureaucrat in charge of negotiating imports (until at least a few years ago) was one of the great commodity traders of the last 50 years. The 2007/2008 price spike did not see widespread falls of governments despite even higher prices.
But my main point originally was that we had severe weather (drought in Russia, flooding in Canada, severe frost and snow in China (and Canada), and both crop substitution for corn in the US (in order to gain ethanol subsidies (and lower yields causing even more of a squeeze in any case)). Given structural price elasticity of wheat, weak Canadian/Australian/Russian/Chinese yields and subsequent export controls, higher wheat prices are to be expected (on the order of 100-150% would not be out of place). Blaming higher wheat prices on the Fed without taking into account the weather is kind of stupid.
Agreed, it would be stupid. "Acts of God" certainly play their part, but those that are the direct result of bad choices by The Bernank are especially aggregious for their very real impact on the developing world by virtue of their avoidability. I don't imagine that anyone would argue that weather etc. are irrelevant.
Bernanke takes credit for rising stock market prices, but not crazy high food prices. Seriously? I guess he doesn’t want to admit he has blood on his hands.
Herr Chairman is lying through his teeth. He knows damn well that flooding the globe with newly printed money is gonna get people killed.
“Ben, the peasants have no bread,” we say.
His response it seems, is simple: "Let the eat cake."
http://therookiecynic.wordpress.com/
Could it be that revolving credit increased for the first time in 2 years because all those long-term unemployed people have been exhausting all their extended benefits and still can't find jobs (or perhaps have been forced into p/t or very low paying work). As such they are forced back into relying on credit as the last option available to make ends meet? I think it could be.....
amazing to actually see this on a MSM news outlet, let alone MSNBC
The primary thing driving up commodity prices worldwide are speculators armed with cheap money provided by central bankers and super fast computers. This is causing a havoc in the lives of rest of the population and pushing them towards poverty as they can no longer afford the basic necessities of life.
Regulators are either hand in glove with the banksters or are too slow to react and take ages to identify and take measures to solve the problems.
The governments around the world will realize that if the banks and financial institutions are not refrained from speculation, their activities are likely to bankrupt countries causing hardship to a majority of the population. They are likely to become a major pain for the politicians and central bankers themselves, the very class of people who let the banks exist in their present form after repealing The Glass Steagall Act in 1999 and allowing them to thrive under their patronage.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article24581.html
Are the only keys on your keyboard Ctrl, C and V? All you ever do is post copypasta.
More than a year and half ago in May, 2009, I wrote an article on my blog on this very subject called "Hundreds of Millions May Face Starvation in the Next 5-10 Years." Back then the media was infatuated with a Swine Flu "epidemic" that was not even an epidemic and all of the financial website aggregators that reprinted my articles refused to reprint this particular article of mine because they didn't consider the link between increasing food prices and Central Bank monetary debasement policies to be a worthy topic of discussion (I was not yet a contributor to Zero Hedge at the time I wrote that article). Back then, it was easy to ignore those of us that warned of this situation but it's hard to cover up revolutions incited by monetary devaluation policies, mass unemployment and food riots.
The swine flu epidemic was just a scam to try to get money. They know if they inflate people will revolt. There has been scam after scam after scam as way to draw in real money.
What was the first thing to inflate massively in price? Eggs. Some of it from inflation. Most of it from making bunch of useless vacinnes to try to screw people out of 70 bucks.
Naah. The weather is to blame. Some AP dude said so today.
/sarcasm/
Futures of all asset classes are eerily quiet tonight.
Buy beans and rice on the dips!
Challenge me. Relagate some thought
Ten and two yields. Get real clowns. Learn to read a chart. Inverted boobs. Do I have to hand it to you?
I love your thought's well done.
Where is that missing $2.3 Trillion Rummy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4GdHLUHwU
"...those who have claimed that deflation is still a far greater force, despite that the all important shadow banking system made a positive inflection point in ending deleveraging in Q3... Alas, to all who believe that deflation or deleveraging is a greater threat: you have our sympathies.."
No sympathy required ZH. Save it for the Fed and those believers in the myth it can control inflation (or delfation for that matter). How are the assets on the Feds balance sheet doing? The empty shopping malls, office blocks and fast food outlets! If the mighty Fed can't stop or reflate assets on its own balance sheet from deflating what chance the rest of the economy???
The Fed has pumped Trillions into the US Govt and Big Bwankers but they can't stimulate anything either. Consumers and businesses are paying off debt, hoarding cash and the economy and house prices are contracting. This is NOT an inflationary economy (liquidity bounces in commodities and stocks aside). This is patently a deflating economy.
My sympathies to the Fed and their true believers. Inflationists 'Dream On' you'll wake up when Credit Crunch II (deflation, the implosion of credit) returns to full force
Possibly.
But then how do you explain the increase in Mastercard and Visa stocks?
Apparently many tens of millions of folks have been spending like there is no tomorrow.
Mastercard had a 41% increase in earnings! So much for your statement that folks are hoarding cash.
And the only part of consumer spending that might be showing a decrease in price is housing. All the rest has risen by a third in my calculations, including the price of anything with sugar in it.
WTF?
Have you noticed Visa and Mastercard has moved into DEBIT cards???
Have you noticed American Express has closed 1 of its 4 major credit card centres???
You may have missed Howard Davidowitz a retail expert a month ago saying US consumers were hanging by a string, 30% of richer consumers are keeping retail afloat. Meanwhile at the bottom end Wal-Mart et als profits and share prices are sinking like lead weights.
What do you mean by "only house prices are falling"? That's the biggest consumer purchase of all. Next is car sales which have also fallen off a cliff since Govt stimulus ended and only kept going by sub-prime car lending which will like property lending blow up in their double-dumb faces. The consumer sector is gasping its last breaths and about to keel over and with it 70% of US GDP.
People simply have no idea how dumb the Fed is. Bernanke can't even define inflation what fuking chance he can target or control it? People who believe in the 'power of the Fed' just don't understand they've failed at everything they've ever tried. When the Fed says support the housing market it continues to sink. Keep down interest rates the rates rise. When they say inflation expect deflation. Support stock markets ....just wait and see...
The Fed aren't just incompetent crones, they're impotent too
Ranting is a commodity. And it aint gonna go up in value!! All the ranters and ravers - have fun. It wont make any difference. Does any one actually believe that ranting and philosophising EVER had any influence on powerful forces? No - the whole purpose of having Power is to be immune to the rantings from the peanut gallery. They dont care. They are NOT influenced by semi-literate ranters and other riff-raff. They have the power and will continue to exercise it as they see fit. The only thing that stops a great power is an even greater power ( Newton's 4th law - look it up).
In life one has a choice: Seek power ( do whatever it takes, get the degrees from princeton or whatever) --- or obey power. Thats it.
So under my rather bleak construct - the ranters are basically failures - folks who want to be powerful but have failed . So they rant. It will make NO difference.
wow - Iam outraged. Think I'll have another beer.
As you ponder the binary choice - my suggestion is if you perchance have failed to acquire power - then best to turn down your thermostat a few degrees, have a drink and read poetry - listen to good music.
If you still want to pursue power - ranting aint the way. It will just make you sick and unhappy.
4 posts to say pretty much nothing, you're living up to your name!
Sooo- what is it exactly that the powerful want? Not being part of that club - it is kinda fun to speculate. Stock up ( how high you ask? well .. in recent history we have seen absurd valuations PEs of 100+ etc - so it could be quite high), bond yields low low low ( how low? around these levels is A OK). Dollar - preferably down ( how down - THEY dont give a fat rats ass - down is OK ).
Thats what THEY sem to want. And Iam reasonably sure thay can get it - manghandling whatever markets dont cooperate, shut down the markets if necessary - mebbe even - hey - yeah - just post prices on the Times Sq ticker - whatever numbers THEY want - can be put up in large LCD digits . Anything is possible. And this all rather tame comapred to what other power hungry types have done in human hstory . ( eg . my old buddy Genghis).
5 post of total junk, have you met Harry yet?
hey Zero - unless yer pseudonym refers to yer IQ - why dont you rebut - anything is actually OK. Just dont whine.
stfu this is not twitter nor facebook
Power is ONLY stopped by a greater Power. OK? It is really pathetic to express yer disgust a the actions of the powerful by trading against them!!! That is really sad.
profiting from the Feds failures is neither "sad" nor any other emotion... you'd be better at an Agony Aunts website than here at ZH to be honest
Glad you have such large profits from umm the Fed's failures. BTW - I am guessing I would need to cross the "pond" to visit with yer "auntie"?
Iam sure there were old ladies in Genghis Khans world who muttered under their breaths about the immense injustices he was doing - like burning down villages and raping the cattle and such. They did not affect the course of history did they?
if you're prepared for your name to go down in the history books as a torching raping loonatic like Ghengis then fine... and it appears Washington, Wall Street and The Fed are also happy with their gathering reputation for trashing, torching and defrauding everything they get their hands on... people like me say something about it, people like you bend over and take it... I'm not sure i'd take any advise about IQ from you for reasons you may be able to work out very shortly
When used as a noun, advise is actually spelled "advice" - but when used as a verb yee cin youse "advise".
See - I think da whole point of slogging up da power structure is so yer name actually appears in da history books. And da publishers of said books get paid by yee and yer ancestors - so dey tend to use umm discretion. Whereas the old ladies muttering under their breaths - aint in no books at all - history or otherwise.
Oh by they way - it is always possible that you have a bit of old Genghis in you. Tink aboutit - Genghis and one yer female distant ancestors!! What a hoot!!
so continue to bend over and take it then... and when the history books are written your place is assured in the jail-bait column
If you are not in the "circle of trust" - you are taking it too - just unhappily and muttering vague philosophical objections - just sing a happy tune - yee'll feel much better.
as i've explained to you I bet against The Fed but not on philosophical or emotional grounds but because like every Dept of Govt they don't know what they're doing and always achieve diddly squat or the exact opposite of what they claim ...it's a reality thing which i find beats having your head, or the Fed, stuck up your arse
I promise when the SPX gets to 2000 - everyone will be feeling good and ALL the misdeeds of the Fed etc will be long forgotten. The rich will be richer, the "not rich" will have their expectations of being rich someday awakened - and be feeling pretty good too!. The pension funds will be solvent.
i think you should look at Japan or any other country that's practiced Keynes to see where a Govt stimulated, central bank counterfeit money, zombie economy gets you.... this is why your IQ advise isn't working, you don't even learn from what is right in front of your nose... the Fed are going to get what they sowed, credit inflation for the past 25 years has baked-in the pie massive deflation of that same credit (debt) bubble as has every credit bubble in history (go back 300 years to the English South Sea bubble)
Its "ass" not "arse" ( at least that is what I was taught in junior high). Yes - sometimes the old guy standing outside the Vatican with a "god does not exist" sign - gets a few pennies thrown his way as the bishops and high priests roll by in their rolls royces.
i'd short the Churches too, their portfolios are also for the car crusher
Yeah OK OK . Again PLEASE -- its "advice" ( noun). OK - Iam sure your very high IQ has enabled you to see past all the fraud and chicanery. But - you know what? I'd rather get rich than have the intellectual satisfaction that the vatican is in fact a crock and there is infact no god.
Again - speakin of the early 18th century bibbles - you have to admit John law had a great life - I mean gmbling , women , "money"(of his own creation - what could be better!!). I bet e whooped it up even after he was exiled to ... was it Elba?
if you're referring to the Scott who first tried Fiat money which led to an economic meltdown and the French Revolution yes he probably did have a good time for a while... you getting deja vue for our times?
Yes the very same - Scottish playboy who had the French royalty kissing his ass ( arse to you).
"do not covet yer neighbor , nor his wife, nor her ass"
John Law was the first Central Banker. All the current generation of central bankers are merely following the Law.
all current central bankers are making the same mistake you mean ....a monopoly of money or anything always leads to the same thing, trashing what you manage
OK - so we could have "honest money" ( gold coins). And the wealthy would all take their coins and hide out in some Alpine resort. is that a good outcome?
See Ben is shaking things up, turn up the heat ( inflation), let simulated annealing occur and the chips fall where they may. So - some poor kid with smarts can within a decade or so become "wealthy". Keeps the animal spirits going. Is that not a mor efun universe than one with all the wealth frozen in Alpine cellars as the old men who own the wealth drink very very old wines as they slowly nod off ?
in order to solve the problem you have to know what it is... the problem is monpoly power structures, the Feds monopoly on money, the Govts monopoly on society... the solution to monpolies is competition... so a free competitive market in money (and banking)... let the shit go to the wall, let the free market work its miracles in money and banking
In bens new new world, with the heat turned up high, nowhere to hide one's wealth - the sharp , poor kids get a chance and the old fogies with ancestral wealth have a chance at experiencing poverty . Such fun!!
yes I'm sure Ben has a Masterplan but for the same reason the USSR failed (central planning) dimwit Ben will fail at everything he (mis)manages. Regards your wider social issues all markets and societies have a constant 'churn' of young new kids on the block replacing the old establishment... Govt is the major ratchet in society and markets of the old farts keeping their power and stopping new competition (ie. Govt stunts and corrupts progress)
Govt (and Ben) is the problem, not the solution
Why don't you two get a room and quit hijacking the post with your inane banterings...?
Bravo Bill and Dylan that was a good summary for the masses. Unfortunately like the Housing bubble no one will care until that bucket of fried chicken is unobtainable with the green paper things in their wallet.