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Friday Tragicomedy: Former Fed Advisor Urges Fed To Buy More, "A Lot More" ... $30 Trillion More
While we can only hope the following screed posted in an otherwise serious BusinessWeek, by David Kemper, CEO of Commerce Bankshare, and more importantly, a former president of the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve and thus indicative of the kind of "advice" the Fed receives, is a joke we have a very nagging feeling that the text below is actually serious. Which is why instead of Friday humor, we have decided to err on the side of caution and call this segment Friday tragicomedy. Because with a statement such as the following: "Why not expand the Fed balance sheet exponentially, from its current $3 trillion to $33 trillion... Would $30 trillion in extra buying power be inflationary when our entire current GDP is only about $15 trillion? Maybe, maybe not—but we need a game-changer here. First let’s celebrate the Fed’s record profits and its contribution to reducing our deficit. Then let’s seize the moment to do something truly grand: eliminate that stubborn deficit. We have the tools, and I, for one, say let’s give it a try."... it shows that the idiotic trillion dollar coin, Sheila Bair's farcical suggestion to let every American borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero rates, or even our suggestion from a year ago that the government build a Death Star, may appear as sheer genius in comparison to what else the Fed may be considering, and implement, before all this is said and done.
From BusinessWeek
QE Cubed: A Modest Proposal for More Fed Buying. A Lot More
by David Kemper, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Commerce Bancshares, Inc., and Past President of the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve
The ongoing depressing news about the American fiscal situation has obscured the startling and very impressive earnings performance recently announced by the Federal Reserve. The Fed, in its usual understated way, just revealed it will be turning over $90 billion in 2012 profits to the U.S. Treasury, a much-needed contribution that will put a sizable dent in our nation’s current $1 trillion federal deficit.
The Fed’s earnings performance over the last several years has been exceptional. It earned more than twice Apple’s after-tax earnings last year, the result of a simple but powerful strategy: borrow money at very low rates, then buy long-term bonds.
Now, some people might question the Fed’s exceptional results and point out that it has an unfair advantage in that it has a monopoly on manufacturing the U.S. dollar. Yes, the Fed does have extraordinary profit margins, since its cost of goods sold is close to zero (basically paper, some bond traders, and access to the Internet), and yes, so far the demand for new dollars seems unlimited. Meanwhile, we as a society seem to have no stomach for trying to reduce our soaring deficit and our accelerating entitlement programs. No one in our federal government seems to be willing to work out a long-term fiscal solution. Why not go with a business model that has proven to be such a winner?
That is why I propose the Federal Open Market Committee’s next move be to take our central bank to a whole new level—a 2013 campaign that I call QE Cubed. Why not expand the Fed balance sheet exponentially, from its current $3 trillion to $33 trillion? Earning an extra 3 percent on another $30 trillion in bonds would allow the Fed to return an additional $900 billion to the Treasury—thus wiping out most of our federal deficit while avoiding actually having to do anything about current government spending.
I’m sure some skeptics will scoff that this might be a little irresponsible. They make invoke memories of Weimar Germany. And, oh, by the way, where is the Fed going to find $30 trillion in acceptable bonds? I am the first to admit that the Fed will have to buy all $15 trillion or so of our current U.S. debt, as well as most of our agency and some corporate debt, in order to reach an additional $30 trillion. But we can make this happen! Here’s the plan:
The Fed will buy all outstanding Treasury debt held by our major creditors–including the Chinese, the Japanese, the Saudis, Bill Gross, and everybody else. This is not a bad thing; it is a major opportunity consistent with current monetary policy. Let’s cut through the economic mumbo-jumbo and put it in human terms: Would you, the American taxpayer, rather owe money to your benevolent rich uncle (the Fed) who is trying to get you a job, or to your no-good brother-in-law (you know who) who is out to steal your business and all your intellectual property? Not a difficult decision. Our current creditors, flush with cash from a $30 trillion infusion, would have to buy something else, further driving up asset prices and lowering interest rates.
Would $30 trillion in extra buying power be inflationary when our entire current GDP is only about $15 trillion? Maybe, maybe not—but we need a game-changer here. First let’s celebrate the Fed’s record profits and its contribution to reducing our deficit. Then let’s seize the moment to do something truly grand: eliminate that stubborn deficit. We have the tools, and I, for one, say let’s give it a try.
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We WILL be borrowing 10 million dollars before all is said and done - just to buy a loaf of bread. The inflation genie does not like to go back into the bottle.
why not $319 Trillion, Everyone gets their own Trillion
Should I be nervous?
The VIX might break through 13 to the upside.
Hey Bernank,
Your team is getting lazy!!!
Come on now, let's not be too harsh. Not every leader adviser or others in positions of grave import and influence can be sane now, can they?
You're right -- I was expecting too much.
However, I thought I saw his photo on 4chan
We live in such a strange, upside down world that I honestly cannot tell if this is deadpan humor or really intended seriously. Has to be intended as humor, I mean, "Why not go with a business model that has proven to be such a winner?" Seriously?
He was clearly being facetious. Nobody would recommend growing the balance sheet by 6 Krugmans.
Absolute power, corrupts absolutly.
I just bought one of those high end printers.
Where do I get some of that cool paper with all the threads and watermarks?
The sad thing is that his facetious and acerbic prescription is lost on most people.
It is not sad it should be very frightening to see guys like this using black humor to attack the ptb. The confidence end game may be closer than I have thought. One thing is sure this guys basement is full of ensure, guns and gold and he best stay out of hottubs.
A lot of us on the fomc have been thinking about how to make best use of what we informally refer to as a 'restorative move', whether it be on the scale of 30T or 300T in money supply.
in the past, our thinking was limited by a narrow interpretation of our legislatively mandated authority, namely, that we would only be able, as part of such a move, to lend money which would later be sopped up as the loans were repaid.
but with the advent of outright purchases of MBS, we are finding our way into the greener pastures of economic stabilization without the shadow of debt repayment and its concomitant monetary contraction.
our main obstacle has been the lack of financialization opportunities at a large enough scale to qualify, from our perspective, as a genuinely restorative move in our outright-purchase policy going forward.
but together with our partners in the treasury and among the primary dealers, we have successfully established structured securitization of the federal government.
beginning this year, we anticipate purchasing Freedom Facility Equity Vehicles at the pace of $1T permonth. These instruments are tranches of a securitized pool formed by the assets and governance of the US. The market value is, in essence, the total worth of the entire nation, which allows us a mechanism for injecting liquidity into the market on a scale that can make a genuine difference.
Bravo. Only needs quotation marks but it will get them soon enough.
Hjalmar Schacht / MEFO bills, bitches. All we need is more leverage, and in total secrecy, on pain of death.
Read Schacht's testimony before the Nuremberg Tribunals.
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-12/tgmwc-12-118-03.shtml
et al
"It goes without saying that in normal times and under normal economic conditions such means as Mefo Bills would not have been resorted to. But if there is an emergency, then it has always been customary, and it has always been a policy recommended by all experts, that the issuing bank should furnish cheap money and credits so that the economic system can, in turn continue to function.
Mefo Bills, of course, were a thoroughly risky operation, but they were absolutely not risky if they were connected with a reasonable financial procedure, and to prove this I would say that if Herr Hitler, after 1937, had used the accruing funds to pay back the Mefo Bills, as had been intended - the money was there - then this system would have come to its end just as smoothly as I had put it in operation. But Herr Hitler preferred simply to refuse to pay the bills back, and instead to invest the money in further armament. I could not foresee that someone would break his word in such a matter too, a purely business matter."
I thought I was reading MDB.
Can you make gold with a 3D printer?
Nice one Thomas!
DavidC
This is a joke, it's even called "A modest proposal," it's actually pretty witty too!
"I’m sure some skeptics will scoff that this might be a little irresponsible. They make invoke memories of Weimar Germany. And, oh, by the way, where is the Fed going to find $30 trillion in acceptable bonds? I am the first to admit that the Fed will have to buy all $15 trillion or so of our current U.S. debt, as well as most of our agency and some corporate debt, in order to reach an additional $30 trillion. But we can make this happen! Here’s the plan:
The Fed will buy all outstanding Treasury debt held by our major creditors–including the Chinese, the Japanese, the Saudis, Bill Gross, and everybody else. This is not a bad thing; it is a major opportunity consistent with current monetary policy."
Obviously he's kidding.
you should not write letters and smoke pot while taking acid...you may embarrass yourself
Unless one is drunk
Damn I miss college. Now where did I put those letters...
Don't bogart that chloroform, bro.
I'm not sure which "winning business model" he is referring to since two sentences before that he said the Fed has an unfair advantage with zero overhead cost beyond paying $9.99/mnth for DSL internet and "sells" a product with unlimited demand. I would hardly call that a "business model" .... more like slavery or fuedalism
It's like having a monoply to sell air, and being amazed at the amount of money you can make doing it and calling it a genius business model.
Dear Commerce Bancshare shareholders. SELL EVERYTHING NOW! Your chairman is an idiot.
Funny thing, Commerce regularly appears on Forbes' safest bank list. Same with UMB, which is run by KC's other Kempers.
I am desperately trying to figure out whether the Fed and their masters are completely incompetent idiots or their goal is to ruin America economy leading to a civil war?
Uh professor I think you may be short some zeroes there.
Every citizen gets a free one trillion dollar coin, why not.
Starving trillionaires.
I remember when Charles Evans went on CNBC a while back and said some crazy shit about unlimited QE with an employment target. Crazy shit.
I like the Death Star idea more.
"why not $319 Trillion,Everyone gets their own Trillion"
So
I am going out on a limb here and guessing math is not your major.
Nor was it of the 16 people who agree with you.
Or you live in a country of 319 citizens...
Did MDB just blow his cover...?
MDB always blows.
That or he blew his load reading this.
I stopped at the local JPM branch this morning and asked to fill out an application for that $10 million loan for ZIRP. Oddly, they didn't seem to know anything about it.
They didn't get the "FULL RETARD" memo, yet.
Sounds to me like: "This damn gas pedal doesn't let my Chevy exceed 110 MPH. Let's duct tape a Jet Engine on this mother..."
Holy fucking shit..what the fuck.
Does the stupidity have a fucking bottom?
NoWayJose:"We WILL be borrowing 10 million dollars before all is said and done - just to buy a loaf of bread. The inflation genie does not like to go back into the bottle."
I assume you mean 10 trillion, not million?
Anyway, to get to my point. Let's say, you NoWayJose, had the power to print money. Let's also assume you owed $1 trillion in liabilities. Maybe it is loans (bonds), maybe it payments to social programs such as SS or Medicare, or probably a combination of such.
You print $1 trillion dollars. Where does it go? It doesn't go into the economy. It goes to service old debts - the $1 trillion you owed (MONEY, OR RESOURCES ALREADY SPENT).
That is a very basic econ 101 that most ZH are missing.
------
Now take the current environment. Guess what? That $30 trillion is nothing. Yes, I said nothing. Just alone in the US, the obligations of the USA exceed $30 trillion by at least double. Now factor in nations around the world and $30 trillion is like trying to settle a $1 million dollar debt with $1000 dollars.
That is why inflation is not raging as most think and predict it should. All the money printed and will be printed isn't enough because it isn't "circulating normally" through economies. It is servicing old debt - money already spent.
Do they give these guys Pshyc Evaluations?
No, just endless free samples of the full SSRI smorgasbord.
This guy sounds like he takes Lithium, Prozaccc, Effexor, and moar with a double shot of Jack D.!!!
The next step is usually to make inflation illegal.
The next step would be limiting bank withdraws to $500 a day, by this time a loaf of bread would cost $12,000.
In the age of electronic money the step after that will see accounts frozen because they use 64bit signed int to represent your balance, and 4.3Billion dollars would buy you 3 eggs.
Hes right. From now on, Economics 101 should be renamed Fixing Paper Jams 101 in all higher education institutions all over the world.
That's nothing, they square circles every day.
This asylum is run by the inmates and the best-est and greatest among them end up with a Nobel prize...
This was clearly tongue-in-cheek the way I read it.
brusty4: "This was clearly tongue-in-cheek the way I read it."
Regardless, the comment, the response is what is interesting. And I posted a logical explaination as to why I disagree. Tongue-cheek, sarcasm, joke, seriousness. It shows you the thinking of the poster and if one agrees or disagrees, that is what we are responding too. That is what you responded too.
No need for evaluation.
What he's describing is full takeover of the United States by the central bank.
But obviously, being a lying and deceitful piece of shit, he has to polish the shit until it sounds good. And put glitter on it.
Does that mean his shit don't stink?
Not sure if serious? The title reads like a Swiftian parody.
It is February 1st not April 1st.
I agree. The FED is a private company, There has to be an angle of profit for the FED.
Incorrect. The FED is quasi private to fool the sheep into believing it has their best interest in mind! IE low unemployment and low inflation and "helping the economy". It is simply there to finance the gov't because no one else will/can.
I see you are fooled as well. The FED is not there to fund the government. It is currently doing so since it aligns with the Shareholders goals. If the goals differ, the FED will cut funding to the gov.
And apparently you are fooled by not know the history of Facism.
If you mean that Facism, when it occurs, the Federal government will nationalize the FED? That may or may not happen. Who knows. But currently the FED is independant of the government and the FEDs actions are to serve the interests of the biggest banks and its shareholders.
Nationalize the FED? Do you realize that is redundant?
At this point I will discontinue this conversation until you realize the blunder you just stated.
Ha ha! You actually believe the FED is owned by the federal government? I didnt think there were any of you left......
"Who is being naive now Kaye?"
Whether the Fed is technically, de facto or de jure owned by the federal government, or vice versa, is a distinction without a distinction. Arguing that the Fed is technically "privately owned" or not takes nothing away from the fact that it is a parasitic and fundamentally evil institution.
Believe me, if the Bernank needed people to vote him, he'd be utmost succesful. All it needs is to pull an helicopter trick over each major city.
.
You need to understand your blunder. The Federal Reserve is as governmental as Federal Express.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM2vMHx46ww
First let’s celebrate the Fed’s record profits and its contribution to reducing our deficit. Then let’s seize the moment to do something truly grand: eliminate that stubborn deficit.
Well I am so HOPPY U R Hoppy at their tremendous earnings.
What did that cover?, leeme see, a tad over 1 months 85 Billion purchases of the T Bills/Bonds,because NO ONE ELSE wants them YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Your grendiloquent style is very ignorant.
Excellent post - many up arrows for that one.
@insanelysane
"A Modest Proposal"? That's a dead giveaway. Invoking Swift's time-honored use of a sarcastic title, he gains the ability to show the absurd without ruffling feathers, i.e. he can always distance himself from the article.
Obviously the sarcasm detectors need a major tune up around here, next thing he'll recommend is eating Irish children and you'll all demonize him as heartless and possessed of bad taste.. More importantly is who is using black humor to criticize the Fed in this way, those are the implications we should discuss.
+1 - your 2nd astute observation is unfortunately completely lost on all those whose sarcasm detectors are faulty.
Go for it! Let's get this party started already.
I don't get it Tylers. What could possibly go wrong.
Pump, pump,
pump it up the rump.
Great...
So everyone's cost of living goes UP exponentially, so the gov can spend more?
Where do I sign up?
www.whitehousepetition.nitwit
Good idea: the Fed should buy all the outstanding treasury debt: then we should cancel it, dissolve the fed and create a new currency.
Yup. FED and China are going to be really upset when they find out that we can't pay back all that money they lent us.
Really though, isn't this why the FED is pumping like crazy? They are desperate to keep the Country solvent, otherwise they don't get paid at all. Benny can either monetize the debt and get paid back in reduced value dollars, or he can not get paid back at all. Poor fucking FED is going to go the way of the S&L crooks.
The founders of the Fed knew what they were doing, from day 1. Don't think for a second that they're somehow surprised by the current situation - they've always known it was inevitable, and most certainly have a real 'exit strategy' although it's not one that the general public is going to be privy to.
The founders of the Fed did indeed have an "exit strategy". It was, "by the time our scam collapses, we'll be long dead!"
Yes, because power crazed individuals/institutions are well known for handing over powers, once gained.
This is idiotic at best.
You know, as I get older and more rational I'm getting quite convinced that one specific theory holds much truth:
Humanity's collective IQ is a constant, the problem is we're breeding like rabbits.
New in town is ya??
May as well get it all out of the way at once instead of meting it out year after year and pretending it's not happening at all.
As a former advisor to the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, with no responsibility or ACCOUNTABILITY i think $60 Trillion has a nice ring to it.
What comes after a trillion?.... Ludicrous-ion. Funny, he doesn't look Druish. It's MegaBen, he's gone from suck to blow.
Good....good!
I can feel your anger, let the farce flow thru you.
Only then can you unleash the power of the QE dark-side.
'We have the tools, and I, for one, say let’s give it a try.'
I, for one, welcome our new money printing overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to be processed into printing ink.
Forget borrowing $10 million from the Fed. Why not just GIVE it to us? Yeah...screw this whole work thing.
Good grief...is this the top in bank desperation and stupidity? How do you top this $30 trillion in money for nothing [and chicks for free] idea?
Why stop at $30T? Why not 33T? Or 42T?
The Full Bernanke: 100 Trillion Luftballons
You and I, and a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at the Fed, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Some thing's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine trillion FERNS go by
Ninety-nine trillion FERNS
Floating in the summer sky
Panic lads, it's a red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Ninety-nine Trillion FERNS go by
Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waiting for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine Trillion FERNS go by
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Riding super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify, to clarify and classify
Scrambling in the summer sky
As ninety-nine Trillion FERNS go by
Ninety-nine Trillion FERNS go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
Every one a red balloon
Now it's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a gold doubloon
I think of you and let it go
Small potatoes. If it's going to be a fiat party, there's nothing like living large.
Make it $1999T.
Total insaity like this just tells me its all about to derail and crash again one overnite soon.
OH and as an aside, '$3 trillion' is just bullshit...since 2008 they're printed and propped at LEAST $30 trillion more than that according to Neil Barofsky and that number was 2 years ago....who the fuck do they think they're fooling with their $30 trillion moar? We already did that many quarters ago!
'FED advisor'....lol FUK U!!
Then se could have the FED just buy everything from everyone...and throw it in a dump...then we would all be rich...just buying up everything for any price... This is wall street thinking!
He doesn't believe in the recovery? Tar and feather him!
Today's English lesson to accompany Friday Humor
The root word of Economics is; "comic"
The combination of the two words; "exact same" is not not compatible. You can use "exactly the same" or "same", but you can't leave out the "the" in the middle.
thank you, the Department of Redundancy Department.
Hell yes. Let's drive those interest rates down to minus 10%. That will show the last three working stiffs we're serious about this..., whatever the hell Ben started back when he had a plan.
What a minute.., why is that Kraut Dude backing up his truck?
I've known this guy in a previous life. Very fiscally conservative. Well, 10 years ago he was.
Satire...and if not, we've crossed the Rubicon.
duplicate
Seriously, buy it up with what? New thin-air fiat. And we can make the Chinese and all the other sellers of UST paper PROMISE not to spend any of that new fiat in a way that upsets us.
Velocity of money tied up in UST paper, zero. Velocity of new cash: >0
What happens if your "benevolent rich uncle" just touched you where he shouldn't.
Wow, Thats a lot of money.
Sheesh. Doesn't this idiot read the news, or listen to Harry Reid? We're already in a recovery dumbarse. It's obvious that the worst is behind us, and it's going to be all sunshine and lolipops soon. :-O
Doesn't this idiot read the news, or listen to Harry Reid? We're already in a recovery dumbarse. It's obvious that the worst is behind us
Reid said this because Bawney Fwank had already gotten the worst of Reid from behind him.
On a serious note, anyone with a half a grey matter cell that's sucking wind, KNOWS we are not in a recovery, and have never been in one since 2008,we are in, and have been in a Greater Depression since then.
And the sad part is it's going to get far worse.
I would prefer giving the families the cash(maybe not quite that much), but enough for the shelves to empty of all things possible.( may be had Beeny dine that to begin with,we would have come out of this 4yrs ago, but insted propped up the banks,and let them draw a quarter basis point for holding it.
That would definitely kickstart the econ, and those of smart enough would buy every piece of PM's available, and EXIT stage right Immediately.
Of course we here are far smarter than the average bears, right?, WE know this WAS the plan from day UNO of the Kings plans.
As long as the sociopaths in power like this guy get the new credit/currency/TP FIRST, they could care less what kind destruction it causes in the real economy.
Lets give everyone a sheet of paper, and a crayon.
Whenever they want to buy something, tear off a piece, jot the number down and hand it over for payment.
Oh shit, wait, this is already being done.
If some is good than a whole lot more is even gooder.
<As Mrs. Cog likes to say "It must be a man who came up with that".>
I'm going out to buy left over party favors from New Years, this guy is on to something!
This is first of April isn't it? It isn't???????????? It is, surely???
All we need is for the Federal Reserve to create fantasy assets which it can deleverage to ofset the infusion of new money and this financial repression will be complete; no inflation from money printing.
Totally bloody depressing...
Now I'm off to kill myself...
Great idea right there. Give the people who print the money the right to buy things without limit. Couldn't possibly fail!
I wonder what Krugman thinks about this?
Kruggy thinks focusing on the debt is actually a very bad thing right now. Damn nutjob thinks even more government spending of borrowed dollars will magically cause economic growth. He's so fucking stupid that he thinks even more massive debt will fix our already massive debt. It's a good thing they are taking away the guns. People are going to start shooting soon, and Kruggy and Benny will target number one.
What is sad is it's going to happen.
Friend of mind once said that "insanity, by definition, has no limits."
I've never appreciated that more than now.
The entire world is now certified 100% fucking insane.
Ahh fuck, I bank at Commerce. I thought they were one of the more sane banks available. Guess if dipshit is at the helm I probably need to look elsewhere (again). I know it would be more ideal to work in only cash but I thought giving good banks my business at least voted with my wallet against bad banks. <sigh>
go local/regional......
Commerce is regional. Time to go smaller I guess.
Wrong Commerce....KC area?
Smaller, think backyard and hole
Welcome to PVC Bank!
I'm in STL, but they're regional
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Bancshares
PVC Bank sounds like a good option though. Haha
I wish someone would shove an air nozzle up Benny's ass and inflate him. Fucking financial terrorist should be guantanamo.
Sorry, can't use guantanamo. I closed that as my first act in my first term, on the first day as I recall...
I heard you were awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for all the peaceful things you were going to do, too. Nice bow by the way.
Oh yeah, that Nobel thing. Actually the whole thing was done on a bet. I bet another fellow (prefer not to name him) that I could get the Nobel Peace Prize without having to actually do anything at all to promote peace (precisely the opposite, in fact). I won the $5 quite easily.
"Would running in circles on the freeway, blindfolded during rush hour be dangerous?
Maybe, maybe not. But you gotta do something and that's something."
Pure genius.
I'm still on board with the Death Star... If we're all doomed, might as well go out in style by blowin' shit up...
I like Sheila Bair's idea.....I'd buy some land in Central America and leave this fuckin joint.
And the great thing is, with 10 million in their pockets, EVERYBODY would be able to do exactly the same thing.
Yeah, or let's just call it what it is: since we don't have the guts to meaningfully cut spending, let's take the truly gutless path and inflate our debt away, thereby screwing the average American citizen whose name isn't Kemper. Add him to the list of people that confuses money with wealth.
HEY I got it! Let's just print a big $30 trillion COIN!
Derrrrrr.......
I'll take my 10 million in gold please.
From now on I want to be paid in shiney beads.
That alien invasion had better start soon
To small. With that line of reasoning why not simply print enough dollars to own every asset on Earth? Imagine the returns to the Treasury when the Fed owns all bonds, stocks, and tangible property on earth? Print our way to wealth, who knew that a simple printing press opens the door to infinite wealth? Take it to next level, lets buy the universe and live off the dividends and coupon payments!
Ben could buy up all the foreclosable real estate from all the TBTF banks and become the world's biggest landlord. Local Gov't won't like it though, because as a Federal Agency, the Fed does not pay property tax.
In other TragiComedy news Sony is stepping into the year 2000:
Sony to make last MiniDisc stereo system in March"It marks an end to the firm's support for the system which it launched in 1992."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21297024#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_sour...
i think this points out the proximity to deciding the greenback is the only mathematical way out of this short of war.
Funny thing about that trillion dollar platinum coin idea. We rejected it in favor of "temporarily" abandoning the debt ceiling entirely. Doing it the second way means we don't even need to buy the ounce of platinum...
It was always just a bluff to bypass the FED. But with a willing enabler like the FED why do the pols even need to bother with drama.
Yeah... about $30 billion more per month is the figure I had in mind too. And if that doesn't work we can waddle on back to Krugman for more details on construction of that interstellar anti-alien war machine we need to build to stimulate our way out of this.
Thats Trillion with a T, not billion with a B. IT's the big boys club now.
It's only fiat. What difference does it make?
.
My bad. That's even better, we can fight the whole Galaxy with that.
At Davos a couple of years ago they had an 83 page plan to flood Western sovereigns with $100 Trillion to save the Ponzi. Looks like they mean it.
fuck the fed, they have totally destroyed what was once a real market.
Does anyone else see the parallel with Kemper's insanity and the episode where The Cleaner (Newman) is brought in to dispose of the muffin stumps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTBVPgHM3Y
But that's exactly what will happen. I've said for a while that there's about $40 trillion more to steal--and that's exactly what he's advocating! They HAVE to do it. The middle class won't tolerate a collapse in the stock market, and the only way to keep it afloat is to loot about $40 trillion more by way of bond purchases. Watch. They'll do EXACTLY what he is saying.
By the way, this isn't the first person who has said that $85 billion per year is too little. It's part of an orchestrated campaign to ease the public into accepting the Fed buying as much as it wants. Next phase? Convincing the public that the Fed shouldn't have to say what it is buying OR how much it is buying. That would be "telegraphing" and amount to "undue influence on the market." More fasconomics.
Ben is buying $85 billion per month, not per year.