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Jim Grant Asks The "PhD Standard" To Allow Markets To Finally Clear
It is apparent, according to Jim Grant in this excellent discussion on CNBC, that we are living in a world where only PhDs know what is best for us all. As the Fed hides behind the political cover of its dual mandate to centrally-plan our lives, the Fed-fighter notes "we are off the common-sense-mandate and in a PhD-Standard." In the brief and wonderfully erudite segment Grant guides the erstwhile CNBC Fed-cheerleaders to a new reality of inflation not being what they think it is (i.e. not the PCE Deflator but more prosaically too much money chasing too few products exemplified in bloated real estate prices in the past and now equity prices), of a '32-inch' yard, and of a dream-like world where we "return to capitalism", and markets are finally "allowed to clear." As ever, Grant is worth the price of admission as he explains how the 'monetary mandarins' have interjected themselves between us and the public price mechanism as the Fed's 'influence' has grown exponentially since its inception.
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Clear this: PC LOAD LETTER
Jim Grant deserves to be detained in a maximum security prison on death row awaiting death by lethal injection for this anti-patriotic diatribe against a leading insitution of the USA such as the Federal Reserve. Where does he get off on such criticism of Bernanke's PhD wisdom guiding us through this diffcult time of economic confusion and fiscal soul-seeking (noticed how I kept the language gere vague and romantic)? Really, somebody ought to confiscate all of Jim Grant"s bowties to keep this narcissistic trainwreck of a commentator off of the airwaves so that no authentic American might be misled by his obscurantist ideas.
You are no MillionDollarBonus_.
Who is the fat guy in the white shirt there?
Couldn't he just shut up?
Jim didn't really have a chance to say something!
his name is asswipe Joe Kernan
MDB appears to have some stiff competition...
We'll see about that....
Hey Joe Kernan. Are you reading this? If so, let me give you some advice. When you have a guy like James Grant on, it is time for you to shut the fuck up and listen.
That doesn't pay as well.
Clown shows require clowns. In this case, to provide distracting cover under the guise of the "wit" of conventional ignorance... er... wisdom, I mean.
They can't let them clear. it would become painfully obvious that the system is about to collapse
Growth is a temporary (250 yr) phenom.
Thererfore, credit growth is a temporary phenom.
Therefore, the system is a temporary phenom.
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2012/10/02/the-one-chart-you-must-understand/
Imagine a return to free market economics. What if money expansion and support of bonds and banks were to cease overnight?
Suddenly every gear in the enormous financial system would turn to shorting, leveraged shorting, and liquidations.
Most company owners, large and small, would have to shutter. That day if they understood, weeks later when market forces made it undeniable.
Much more that half of all businesses and individuals would be forced to bankruptcy.
Most sovereign and commercial entities would find themselves unable to obtain funding AT ANY PRICE. Those that did would balk when interest demands drove above 20% per annum.
The very few solvent and liquid remaining in the system would acquire at pennies on the dollar with most assets going bidless.
Years of unemployment for the most needy. Astounding wealth gaps.
Same with true gold standard. International bank run, soaring paper price, hoarding and withdrawal of actors from financial participation.
Depression of such magnitude that international revolutions would be inevitable, or tyranny and iron clad police states.
Instead we die by fire rather than ice. But remember that monthly (not including its impact on money expansion via fractionalization) the Fed spends nearly 85 Billion unsterilized, pure monetization. Tally up the cost of the Hoover Dam, Manhattan project, TVA, interstate highway system, Alyeska pipeline, build costs for most large ports, etc. You would find it hard to spend it all. And we'll do it every month, month after month, in open ended manner.
THAT should tell you how bad it is about to become for fiat currency holders.
Money supply skyrockets just as velocity is plunging below any previous episode.
By destruction of international full faith and credit, or by instant dry-freeze through return to sound money. End result will be nearly the same. And terrible beyond conception.
good analysis.
heh. @Thomas, I doubt that dickface reads this site, he made his feelings known re: zerohedge in a mumbled statement a while back where he said "I don't even want to mention those two words on the air," when asked what the 2 words were his mealy mouth replied "Zero Hedge"
Joe Kernan if you are reading this, you are a tool.
It would be nice if kernan shut his fucking yap long enough to let Grant get a word in edgewise
Those CNBC'ers are worthless.
I miss Uncle Charlie (Biderman) - at least he's cynical and good for some laughs.
biderman is a squid now....we lost him to the other side.....
"It would be nice if kernan shut his fucking yap long enough to let Grant get a word in edgewise"
Ditto....
kernan is a jeenyus with a capital J
Exactly! I thought coke was supposed to make you thin!
Grant was a Navy Gunner's mate??!!?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Grant_%28finance%29
is this troll or /sarc?
Positive its sarcasm. Just dry enough to be fun and make one think.
He is the Hugh G. Rection Professor of Trollmanship at Troll School. We should saver these thoughtful posts.
Good try [MDB]
Wow, you realy need to go back to troll school. That was brutal.
? ...
wtf !
You forgot to change logins dude.
Excellent stuff!
Great sarc rant slaughterer... (-:
There is no joy in Mudville and there is no freedom in Amerika
BS degree = Bull Shit
MS degree = More Shit
PHD degree = Pile it Higher Dammit
In engineering I find that a BS degree is quite useful, a MS is sometimes better while some individuals with a PhD show staggering intellect and can really get fantastic results but most with a PhD "Pile it Higher"
Allow, bad business models to FAIL?!?! What a novel concept. Sorry Jim, that's not how fascism works.
I'd gladly return to a gold standard instead of having to carry around this bull sheet meter reader
Nah, they just said. They're adopting the PhD standard instead. No need for a bull sheet meter any more, just assume it's offscale permanently.
cant smart guys like Grant, Faber, Schiff, Rogers, etc put the pieces together and realize this is all happening 100% by design?
All your freedoms are belong to us - tptb
They of course know this and play along with the game and get rich, while claiming Bernake is stupid!
Do I detect a note of protest against censorship in your latest icon, Plad?
Exactly +1, everyone is in on the game, even the critics. That's why we're still playing. It will not fail because anyone really wants it to, but only because it somehow runs out of energy (literally) and starts consuming itself.
It makes so much more sense when you realize it isn't news, but theater. Just one more dimension of the Circus Zone.
Yep, they are all 1%ers.........
You would'nt be seeing them on the TV then.
he's a terrorist and should be detained at guatanamo!
We are getting soooo close to that. If you can be arrested and fined for collecting rain in a water barrel, all bets are off.
Since you mentioned the rainwater, how many people know that the Miltonian Chicago School of Business was behind the authorities in the Latin America who actually imprisoned their own people for collecting rainwater? And why did they do this? Well because the water system was privatized by an American conglomerate.
They experimented on and raped Chile, Indonesia, the Balkans, and all to get ready for the big one, the USA and the rest of the world which is happening as we speak. All those hailing Milton and his fascist dogma as anything else but brutal repression are either ignorant or evil.
The fact that Friedman was a believer in the 'necessity' of having central banks says it all, really.
Guantanamo is so yesterday. Clearly it will be at Thomson prison in Illinois. http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/10/obama-administrati...
"They" cannot (thus they will not) let the markets naturally clear because that would destroy their power base and source of control.
Outstanding summation CD!
Give thatman 64 silver dollars. Right on the button. Milestones
I was still a bit sleepy this morning but I could swear the Bloomsberg tv had a graph that showed a negative correlation between gas prices and consumer goods which seems to indicate that if gas prices go to $5/gallon, the price of consumer goods will actually fall. Hedge accordingly. The law of gravity has been repealed.
thats pretty fucked up!
Yes, I yearn for the days decades ago when a gallon of gasoline cost a dime, and a gallon of milk cost $200.
Wait a minute...
Grant for Treasury Secretary (and to oversee abolition of the FED)
He would be under Ron Paul. Write him in. Milestones
He would be under Ron Paul. Write him in. Milestones
who was that schmuck with glasses?
I watched CNBC this morning because Grant was on. It was an excellent discussion on his part despite the tangential thinking exhibited by the panel. His remark that the markets should be allowed to clear is anathema to CNBC who struggle with concepts like allowing bad businesses to fail.
You watched CNBS this morning? I thought we talked about that. Damn now we have to start deprogamming you again.
Good morning Doc! I try to watch Grant whenever he's on, regardless of which channel. Little did I know Kernan would run his ignorant mouth in an attempt to drown out Grant. How he didn't reach over and backhand Kernan into next week is a testament to Grant's being very well-centered. This was reminiscent of Liesman constantly interrupting Barofsky when he was trying to discuss TARP.
My conclusion: The clowns at CNBC will interrupt anyone who is not in bed with the Fed.
Top of the morning to you.. I agree I turn it on every now and then but I can't take it more than five minutes listening to them. Especially when they interview somebody I want to hear speak. It just gets my blood pressure up when they have to pretend like they know something and constantly interrupt.
Can we start with removing that towel or sheet that's in the way?
put Grant on Bloomberg and I like watching him, but when he has to be immersed on clown teevee with Joe and the other goons constantly interrupting him, hard to watch even though Grant is by far my favorite analyst
Kernan is such an asshole. Constantly interrupting with his bullshit premises
Something wrong with Joe lately. Very confrontational, always with a scowl on his face. Always picking on Sorkin.
I think he knows his job is on the line since Sorkin was brought on the Show. In my opinion to replace him.
Plus, where does Joe get off talking about Quantum Physics. Trying to show how smart he is or just being a jerk trying to steal attention.
Joe likely saw the ratings.
Although it didn't work with Grant, constantly interrupting is Kernan's way of controlling the conversation. He is one of the most insufferable jerks I have ever seen. A true ASSHOLE!!
A ponzi scheme can never be voluntarily ended. It must collapse. US markets will.
Replace 'US' with 'world'. As Bush so eloquently said, "this sucker's going down."
Jim Grant replaces Ben Bernanke as FED chariman in my ideal dream world.
Power corrupts. No-one is immune ... not even James Grant. That's the whole point.
In my ideal dream world, there would be NO Fed Chairman because there would be NO Fed.
Then, congress would be in control of the money supply and how much credit the banking system could create out of thin air (even under a gold standard).
This fella makes waaayyyyy too much sense. How on earth did he get a gig on CNBS?
They all play a role in keeping the masses confused. They can stay on the air as long as they don't cross the line and talk the "real" truth and how truly fucked the entire system is.
What I am waiting for is more and more of them to get squeezed and start freaking out on live TV or in some other setting that can't be easily censored/deleted/etc.
That idiot Joe on CNBC has proven that he not only does not understand economics, has no knowledge of history, but that he is also ignorant of physics. Where do they get idiots like that? Grant made a very logical and clear argument, but these fools have no idea what he was rreally getting at. How did the world come to this - TV stations run by idiots, the Fed overrun by the idiot, arrogant, foolish academic economists. Everyone believing you get rich by borrowing and printing, not hard work and creating something of benefit to society...We are living in a sovereign equivalent of Enron.
Lord Benron of Enron, money-master puppet extraordinaire!
I normally keep it on "mute" while watching CNBC.
My Kingdom for a roll of duct tape! Damn, Kernen is an irritant.
I think the answer is simple. Market clearing price would be bad. Likely ignite debt deflationary cycle they are fighting. Certainly I think we all would have prefered less meddling to this point and to have avoided such a situation but the question remains, is it better to pull away completely right now or try to land it. I don't know, but unfortunately even if landing is smooth and the best of all choices in the near-mid term we are getting deeper ingrained in central planning/mucking with free markets that is very much to blame for this mess in the first place.
LOL, WUT?
How about this - central planning/meddling is what got us into this mess. They are now supposedly working to get us out because they believe that market mechanisms left without support will make things far worse. When all is said and done we are left with more central planning which is the largest part of the problem in the first place.
The irony would be funny except that it is tragic. Said another way, the poison is being used as the antidote. Best I can do.
He makes it sound so simple ...and it is...but if you are TPTB...you want to make it difficult...to keep your job..and power...look at the tax code....it could be easy....but a lot of lawyers and accountants make money by making it difficult...
These guys are just wrong and a lot of people will die because of it.
You can let "markets clear" and you can let bad business models fail all you want and it's not going to help.
The problem is oil scarcity. It's a geology problem. Not an economics problem.
Until we have accurate price discovery that problem has a 0 chance of being solved.
Wah wah wah, the laws of physics and Nature don't give a shit.
A good business model knows how to properly invest both capital and resources (like oil dipshit).
What, you want some guarrantee on your survival?!?! LMFAO!!
Man, are you on the wrong website kid.
Invest all you want.
You know better. There is no fix for this. Death approaches in large numbers.
I'll take the "peak oil" argument seriously just as soon as the price of oil, in gold, begins a permanent upward trajectory. Otherwise, I side with Julian Simon.
Any economist/investor named Jim has to wear a fancy Bowtie.
Good of him to mention the inflation in farmland. That alone should scare the hell out of anyone paying attention.
Tyler,
any word on what happened with KRFT?
.
KRFT ==>> the new HFT boytoy. Some trades were cancelled as a result.
There are cycles of fear and greed. We are in an "enforced" cycle of greed. Makes me wanna puke, but it is what it is. God bless Mr. Grant.
We need a close up on Becky Quicks tits for more analysis. That would clear things up tremendously.
Notice how quite she is while Grant is speaking truth?
Doubt her nipples were hard for FED denouement.
Again Jim does the right job in the right tone! As for the rest Jim Kernel and the ex nyt 'reporter' mere sheeple.
'Thy Kingdom Come?'
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bernanke-warns-his-creator-88010/
*hat-tip Drudge Report
The crisis was purposely and mightily strived/bribed/killed for in order to create the conditions by which the populace will not ask for, but cry out for world gov't......And so it was stated by Paul Warburg before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Feb 17, 1950 "We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest."[ ..........All else is commentary.
There is a serious flaw with the anti-intellectualism of this and some other articles.
The problem is not that the "educated" are in charge. The solution is not to have the "uneducated" make policy, despite what Pol Pot and others would contend.
There are plenty of PHDs and other educated persons who strongly object to the plutocratic and militaristic policies of our government. But you won't find many of them in top positions of business and government. The "mandarins" chosen to implement policies are carefully selected and vetted, whether they are top politicians or top administrators. They do not, and would not be allowed to set policies against TPTB, even if they wanted to.
The attempt to blame the "PHDs" for our troubles is a failure to confront the actual wielders of power, and the systemic defects of the greed-based economy that exist.
"Anti-intellectualism"? You wouldn't know an intellectual if one bit you in the ass.
hapless
Bite me!
I'll easily identify what you are.
@rwe2late Part of me wants to agree, but I come down on the other side this time because I've watched the academic community for years drift further and further into the lap of marxism like a bunch of sheep. Face it, the academic community is populated by 90% leftists and 5% conservatives and 5% utter fools like Ward Churchill. Even Scientific American, for gawd's sake, has an unrelenting leftist political agenda these days, where anyone questioning the reliability of data measuring thousand year climate cycles on the evidence of the last 5 years is buried 12 feet under.
Try picking a university for your kids that isn't a 4-year indoctrination into socialist beliefs. My latest count is one: Texas A&M.
AynRandfan -atic
So you'd agree with me that "PHDs" are not actually the ones determining policies and wielding power, except you don't.
So you think the PHDs are the basic problem, and your "proof" is that allegedly 90% of PHDs are "socialists", the government is "socialist", and therefore the PHDs must be in charge. Worse than your illogic is your false attribution and contempt of what you believe is "socialist".
Hillsdale College in Michigan
"Being an expert in one thing doesn't make you an expert in everything. But experts think so." - Lazarus Long
Alan Blinder is a Professor Emeritus at Princeton and writes regularly for the WSJ. Everytime I read one of his screeds in the WSJ, it confirms my belief that you can have a PhD and still be an idiot. In fact, I play a little game when I read one of his op-ed's: I don't try to find places where he's wrong, I try to find places where he's right.
I've known Janitors and Ditch Diggers that had more intelligence and common sense than most PhD's.
Indoctrination and obeisance to flaccid tautologies does not make one educated or right.
Yardsticks measure, they don't create.
The FED destroys.
"The solution is not to have the "uneducated" make policy, despite what Pol Pot and others would contend."
Alas, there is a forest beyond those trees.
The issue is the very existence of policy, not the education level of those making it. The root of the problem is that the Imperial Court and her crew of PHDs are arrogant enough to believe "policy" can steer an economy of immeasurable complexity to a desired end. The correct policy is not a question of Pol Pot vs Krugman, correct policy is no "policy" at all.
Central banking is central planning and central planning itself is fallacious. The very existence of any economic "policy" beyond the rule of law is in and of itself, the system's insurmountable flaw.
The same logic that argues that laws stop the lawless from breaking laws, that raising taxes = more revenue in a 1:1 ratio, and that rewarding failure will create success.
No, it doesn't, you are reacting to a statement that I didn't make.
You missed that whole "beyond the rule of law" bit, didn't you? Prosecuting fraud (including central bank sponsored fraud) is quite a different thing that price level targetting.
You edited your post after I began typing my response and I now have absolutely NO idea what your point actually was.
I agree with your original post.
Equating Ivy League PhD with "intellectualism" is where your argument got derailed.
That reminds me, I haven't heard much about Merton and Scholes since they helped blow up LTCM. With their Nobel prizes 'n all, shouldn't they be Fed governers by now?
new rwe2late
you are absolutely correct!!!
NFLX, bitchex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT9VXxuc0LE
FWIW Dept.:
The creation of a 'Nobel Prize in Economics' 1968?
The callous act of "The Nixon Shock" ... that literally forced [NWO] the hand of europe to unite [knowing it was a doomed experiment from it's inception]! 1971?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences#C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1971/press.html
and guess who comes to dinner?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Kuznets
Timing??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmRG0Y5N8lg&feature=related
"Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals will believe them." - George Orwell (maybe)
The Fed's dual mandate is to "maintain stable prices" and "promote economic growth". The Fed has some influence on the former and, as history has shown, completely incompetent on the latter.
The Fed should be stripped of its "promote economic growth" mandate. Maintain stable prices and economic growth will take care of itself.
***The Fed's dual mandate is to "maintain stable prices" and "promote economic growth"***
That's not completely correct. The Federal Reserve’s dual mandate is to target both maximum employment and price stability. Which of course well all know is complete bull shit. This is to give them cover to raise or lower rate to benefit the big banks. If it does aid in "maximum employment and price stability", this is purely coincidental.
We're actually both right.
15 USC 3101
(c) The Congress further finds that an effective policy to promote full employment and production, increased real income, balanced growth, a balanced Federal budget, adequate productivity growth, proper attention to national priorities, achievement of an improved trade balance, and reasonable price stability should
(1) be based on the development of explicit economic goals and policies involving the President, the Congress, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, with maximum reliance on the resources and ingenuity of the private sector of the economy,
(2) include programs specifically designed to reduce high unemployment due to recessions, and to reduce structural unemployment within regional areas and among particular labor force groups, and
(3) give proper attention to the role of increased exports and improvement in the international competitiveness of agriculture, business, and industry in providing productive employment opportunities and achieving an improved trade balance.
The REAL Fed Dual Mandate:
1) Prevent bank runs on her member banks
2) Monetize the government's debt so the banks don't get nationalized
A thousand PhD's when all you need is one golden knife
Wait...wait...he's making sense; must...read...Bernankes...speech's...again...and...Wizard...Of...OZ...
Is it my time yet?
"PhD standards" and so called "Nobel Laureates in Economics". BTW... FUCK YOU KRUGMAN!
Well spoken--haven't read any of his books, but his logic is sound compared to the "devil's" advocate. As for the "Monetary Mandarins", they should interject a gerbil enema and quit riding the "dual mandate" pony.
It takes an Ivy League PhD/ego to attempt boil the millions of instantaneously changing, subjective, personal adjustments to expectations (aka the price system) down into two curves on a graph and then have the megamaniacal hubris to enact policy based upon that graph.
How many Ivy League PhDs does it take to explain how an elephant can dangle over the edge of a cliff with it's tail tied to a daisy?
The "Global Coastal Event" predicted to occur sometime before June 2013 will ensure the markets will clear. In fact there won't BE any markets left: http://www.halfpasthuman.com
Changing length of the "yard?"
We use a bent rubber ruler.