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Alan Greenspan: QE Failed To Help The Economy, The Unwind Will Be Painful, "Buy Gold"
It appears it is time for some Hillary-Clinton-esque backtracking and Liesman-esque translation of just what the former Federal Reserve Chief really meant. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the Fed chief from 1987 to 2006 says the Fed's bond-buying program fell short of its goals, and had a lot more to add.
Mr. Greenspan’s comments to the Council on Foreign Relations came as Fed officials were meeting in Washington, D.C., and expected to announce within hours an end to the bond purchases.
He said the bond-buying program was ultimately a mixed bag. He said that the purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities did help lift asset prices and lower borrowing costs. But it didn’t do much for the real economy.
“Effective demand is dead in the water” and the effort to boost it via bond buying “has not worked,” said Mr. Greenspan. Boosting asset prices, however, has been “a terrific success.”
...
He observed that history shows central banks can only prick bubbles at great economic cost. “It’s only by bringing the economy down can you burst the bubble,” and that was a step he wasn't willing to take while helming the Fed, he said.
...
The question of when officials should begin raising interest rates is “one of those questions I cannot answer,” Mr. Greenspan said.
He also said, “I don’t think it’s possible” for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner....
"Recent episodes in which Fed officials hinted at a shift toward higher interest rates have unleashed significant volatility in markets, so there is no reason to suspect that the actual process of boosting rates would be any different, Mr. Greenspan said.
...
“I think that real pressure is going to occur not by the initiation by the Federal Reserve, but by the markets themselves,” Mr. Greenspan he said.
And finally - while CNBC's audience is told what a terrible thing gold is, "The Maestro", having personally created the financial cataclysm the world finds itself in following a lifetime of belief in fiat, Keynesian ideology and "fixing" one bubble with an even greater and more destructive asset bubble, has suddenly had an epiphany and now has a very different message from the one he preached during his decades as the head of the Fed.
Mr. Greenspan said gold is a good place to put money these days given its value as a currency outside of the policies conducted by governments.
What Greenspan failed to add is that it is thanks to his disastrous policies (subsequently adopted by Bernanke and Yellen) that gold is the "place to put money."
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QE 4 will be blamed on Europe too. Europe is the cause of all the upcoming USA problems...
This same criminal that engineered 3 recessions and multiple market crashes due to his terrrible economic policies over a 20 year span INCLUDING bashing gold, now comes out with a "Hey didn't I shit the bed!" mea culpa?
Pardon me if I am not rejoicing at his new found honesty.
I was wondering when someone was going to mention those 3 recessions.
Bankers deserve a new circle in hell.
Great promotion for his new book
I can only LMFAO about these people that think that there is an exit / easy unwind.
Guys, don't you know???
Alan and his college roomate got together and figured out how to rig markets "with computers" and they did this purposefully to give the bankers enough rope to hang themselves. Alan is actually the savior of the free world, and it sounds like he is ready to save the day!
/s
Hi Bix
"He observed that history shows central banks can only prick bubbles at great economic cost. “It’s only by bringing the economy down can you burst the bubble,” and that was a step he wasn't willing to take while helming the Fed, he said."
pulling the old "juncker" ... as Chairman he said (often) you can't spot a bubble
I see QE ending and then negative interest rates to grab what's left from savers. In FEDSpeak, they need to "wring the towel" before they throw it in.
yep, that is the road we're on ... as Amerikans we must take ALL the wrong courses of action before doing the right one
An old man trying to clean up his dirty legacy. Nothing more. Sorry Alan, you did it and we remember. History is not going to be kind to you no matter what you say now. So STFU.
Why the fuck this scums have long life?
Because only the good die young.
even Kissinger is still alive at 91
maybe I should start eating kosher as well...
Vampire Blood,nothing but Vampire Blood.
Juvenile Banking
Nothing to see, just critters waking up in a demographic bust, working harder and harder to create artificial scarcity, to re-inflate the mythology justifying the get-them-before-they-get-you, juvenile psychology of peer pressure dictating herd behavior, fear as a self-fulfilling prophesy among passive aggressive bullies and their scapegoats, same as it ever was.
Uuuh, those mean, nasty bnksters, the top 1%, in terms of toilet paper production, be afraid, be very afraid, as an excuse for the political majority, which is far south of 99%, somewhere around 9% on either side of the pole, acting as gatekeepers for profit, to keep the other 90% in line, with credit leverage.
Bank just cuts the system up into artificial specialties to give the gatekeepers the excuse and cover necessary, always blaming 5000-yr-old behavior, to continue the same behavior, with sidewalk surveys for the purpose. The bankers don’t build weapons or develop violent video games, man armies or prisons, evict renters or collect taxes, or give your children Rydalin. All they do is manage the mythology of money, for critters who do not want to take responsibility for their own behavior, always seeking a scapegoat in others.
On what planet is Alan Greenspan going to be the toast of the party, except one in which juveniles are getting ‘even’ with juveniles, and all the other juveniles show up , in fear of being left out of the loop. Drugs and money don’t go hand in hand by acciedent. Funny, how a drug, spending paper or otherwise, is always the first, middle and last test of inclusion in the club, and you are weird/dangerous if you don’t participate.
If pictures are worth a thousand words, the cavedwellers of yesterday are far more intelligent than anything you will find in finance today. Even now, they hedge, hoping the casino will reboot itself, as the demographic bust realigns with natural resource production.
The form and nature of government, natural resource exploitation, is irrelevant to labor, except as an extension of gravity, landing and take-off. Go get your license and go back to work. You didn’t miss anything, and you are far better positioned than the addicts.
I get paid to fire people, much more than I get paid to fix elevators, and more than the lobbyists make to grow weeds in the Attorney Generals Office, and I’m pretty good at it. What you plant is up to you.
I can fix anything made by man, which puts me in the top 1%, and makes me the enemy of the political majority, but no one outside your marriage can fix your marriage. Internal fortitude is the one and only path to the future.
Who you want on your side when you grow old is not the same as who the majority wants at its side in high school. Go do some time at a retirement home if you don’t know what I mean. Government is not the answer.
The critters in the US Navy are looking back now, and see that I was there at every juncture, to no avail. You’ll have that. Don’t look back and expect to see a happy outcome, when that oncoming train is recognized by the majority.
in 1808 Putnam was elected the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Ohio
"Hysteresis is the dependence of the output of a system not only on its current input, but also on its history of past inputs..."
Only get a little bit of what you are getting at, but i'll defend to the point of shedding a drop or two of my blood, your right to be as inscrutable as Greenspna.
Looks like Alien SpleenGland is trying to redeem himself shortly before death by telling some of the truth for a change....
I'll bet he gets 'suicided' any day now - any takers?
NO ONE COULD HAVE KNOWN THAT BOND BUYING WAS NOT GOING TO INCREASE EFFECTIVE DEMAND. NO ONE!! No ZH digitial dickweeds. Or Austrian economists. Of, fuck all, even the bond buy side guys who are getting paid to hold on to this shit for like a month and sell it to the Fed. No one listens to those people anyway. They're not "serious".
And buying bonds to increase employment? The current charade du jure. Sure, If employment in car sales to buy side bond dealers and hookers was what you were looking for. Maybe high end consumers good for their wives and girlfriends.
Anyone who understands how the new money flows in knows this is bullshit. Which pigs feed first at the trough.
I hate this guy. He is the most dishonest person of the 21st century.
but, but, but, he was Ayn Rand's true son.
A son, who is now Icarus to her Daedalus, master craftswoman of iconic John Galt of Atlas Shrugged.
When the Gods of Capitalism fall into the depths of fiat frenzy Hades.
He read a book by Ayn Rand in his life! He must be a disciple!
I had to read Charlottle Bronte in high school. I still don't know what the book was about. I do know that no one mistakes me for a feminist.
Give it a rest. Greenspan sold out to be a government cocksucker and epically wrong about everything for 50 years. He was his own man in that regard.
Larry Flynt 2016
FYI he was purported to be her lover; way before Andrea.
Read this :
Objectivism[edit] Objectivist movement Philosophy[show] Organizations[show] Theorists[show] Literature[show] Related topics[show]In the early 1950s, Greenspan began an association with novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand.[43] Greenspan was introduced to Rand by his first wife, Joan Mitchell. Rand nicknamed Greenspan "the undertaker" because of his penchant for dark clothing and reserved demeanor. Although Greenspan was initially a logical positivist,[51] he was converted to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism by her associate Nathaniel Branden. He became one of the members of Rand's inner circle, the Ayn Rand Collective, who read Atlas Shrugged while it was being written. During the 1950s and 1960s Greenspan was a proponent of Objectivism, writing articles for Objectivist newsletters and contributing several essays for Rand's 1966 book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal including an essay supporting the gold standard.[52][53] Rand stood beside him at his 1974 swearing-in as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Greenspan and Rand remained friends until her death in 1982.[43
If it weren't for QE, the US would not have been able to keep funding the expensive status quo and the US as we know it would have ceased to exist 5 years ago.
QE is and always has been an excercise in financial masturbation and if you include the primary dealers, it was at best a circle jerk.
So it stabilized the markets and lifted asset classes. It helped the economy to come back from the dead but it hasn't managed to revive the brain dead corpse. How could it?
Visualize the end of QE with an image of the central bank "artists" spinning plates and someone pulls the rug from the stage.
END OF THE SHOW, NO APPLAUSE just everyone heading for the exits!
I guess that "irrational exuberence" has finally come home to roost in his addled brain.
Greenspan is a barberous relic
So true.
But he does tarnish a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHOgkDbVqc
Shit, listening to post-FED-chairman Greenspan, is like listening to Senator Obama.
Near future, IMHO:
1. Global demand falls sharply, mostly because global debt is too high. This process is just starting;
2. Manufacturers respond by lowering prices, at least until marginal cost of production. Marginal cost of production with highly automated plants is very low;
3. The result, despite fiat currencies, is deflation on a truely epic scale.
Gold is a _very_ bad idea.
And you can forget the 'helicopter' dollar drop idea to boost inflation.
Reserve currency status confers great benefits, and although that status is being lost, the process could take years.
A 'helicopter' on a Monday means that reserve currency status has gone by the following Friday.
I suspect cash, in a world with a seized-up banking system and rapidly falling prices, won't be so much king as Deity.
Watson
I'm not knocking "buy gold" strategies, but here is my question. In a zombie hord, or dollar collapse or end of the world scenario, how do you actually spend your gold coin?
Large amounts of cash are already being stolen under civil forfeiture. Gold will be just as suspect. Governments will ban ownership or require mandatory reporting of all sales. And that is if you can find a place to exchange it.
Imagine gold at $10k, do you just walk into a bank and ask for 10k in cash?
Again, honest question, what is the strategy for extracting that stored value in gold? How do you spend it?
Govt grabbing your gold is not an impossible scenario, but it's probably not very likely either - there just isn't enough of it in the hands of the people in the U.S. to make it a worthwhile proposition - even if it tripled or more from its current value.
Once the dollar goes into the proverbial shitter, nothing will rescue or stabilize it - least of all the small sums of gold held by the populace. It just wouldn't be worth the effort and backlash for the govt to do this in future.
I'd worry more about getting your head blowed off by a have-not that saw you with your gold or silver coins making some transaction. It ain't gonna be pretty here in third world amerika when the poop hits the fan.
Stop asking these questions of practicality. You will get silence from the gold fanatics. In a SHTF scenario, guns, ammo, food, fuel, water, etc. will be items of real value.
Your point applies to any kind of material wealth; if the government wants to steal it, they can.
But certain types of wealth are harder to take. The can steal anything held in the banking system by tapping a few keys on a keyboard; they can steal land with the stroke of a pen; they can destroy the value of cash through inflation or outright cancellation (this has been done many times throughout history). Property held overseas is a lot harder to take, of course, but governments are increasingly reporting holdings of assets to each other as they try to squeeze more out of ex-pats. They can just tax you on your overseas holdings and force you to sell them or go to prison.
Gold is a lot harder to trace. You can bury it. It's portable so it can be (relatively) easily smuggled.
Bitcoin has some advantages, obviously, but it doesn't have 4000 years of history suggesting that other humans will value it, come what may... silver's probably a good bet, medium to long term, because of its industrial uses, but doesn't have the same value-density, so if you're worried about leaving a hostile locale with at least some of your wealth, silver's not the answer.
dup
I ask my self the same question and have no answers. I figure one day my kids will have to answer it as I do not expect to live long enough to profit from my stacking at this point.
How do you spend anything? Someone exchanges for it.
The zombie scenario or SHTF scenario while fun is infinitely more impractical and unlikely than gold being used as money. It was used as money in Switzerland just 15 years ago. I remember it. No one was eating brains.
Here's what will happen: some country is going to say "I won't take your 1s and 0s anymore. If you want to trade, let's see your gold". If they got stuff you want, you're going to acquire gold so you can get stuff from them. Their stuff will be priced in gold. When they want stuff from you, you can ask them to pay for it anyway you choose. That's the price for the stuff you have.
Eventually someone's going to realize getting gold around the world will be a pain in the ass, and create a gold credit and clearing exchange. You may even be able to loan gold through these people. They may even accept the Slave rag 1s and 0s. They may even loan 1s and 0s using the gold as collateral. And magically gold becomes the collateral for global exchange. So if you want stuff that doesn't get produced in your country, you're going to want to find a way to get some gold.
It doesn't matter how much gold their is available for this exchange either. The prices will rise and fall until the market clears. It's like so simple you'd be astonished that people 2500 years ago figured it out.
I personally think they will have some special very high tax for PMs. This will force most PMs underground and the Barter world will become larger. But that is already there and the IRS is working to corner that money already.
I'm not a survivalist, but I imagine it being a tier above silver ... one gold coin exchanges for 50 silvers, silver is what you use to buy bread and beer if you're not bartering.
Greenspan has always understood gold. Remember (Junker I think) said...when it gets bad you have to lie...While Greenspan was Fed Chair it was always bad....
In retrospect I don't think history will have the same verdict that is rendered here at ZH. Yes they lie and yes some profit greatly. I'm afraid a few billion in bonuses to bankers is the price we pay to keep an unstable monetary system afloat.
Guys like Rueff and Triffin saw problems coming and wrote about then while the BW accord was new. They were largely ignored at least in the USA as we benefitted from some of the problems with BW. We also paid the price of lost industrial base.
The coming monetary system will fix a lot of these problems. I'm sure it will reveal a few we haven't though of.
So... if Greenspan says to buy gold? do we sell it?
Yes (see my post below) plus:
Looks like Swiss citizens (via referendum) want their central bank to buy lots of gold.
Citizens = retail.
Retail, even Swiss retail, is _always wrong_.
Watson
That's interesting. Apple made a fortune from following the preferences of retail. But I guess you're smarter than them, hmmmm?
As you say, Apple gained by following the 'preferences of retail'.
The gainers were Apple shareholders, not retail as a whole...retail as a whole was _giving money to Apple_.
Each retail customer may well have felt that he gained by buying an Apple product, but did he _pay the right price for it_?
I suggest each customer always paid too much, in fact _far_ too much, for what he received...that was why Apple did so well.
I repeat, retail always gets it wrong...
Watson
mea culpa mofo
So, the 1% is now the 2% right? How many more billionaires has the Fed created with QE debt taxpayers will need to pay down? Democrats are robbing the country blind.
Someone should flip a Gold Eagle into his lap and crush his little mess.
It is Back to the Future.
AG returns to 1966 and publishes Gold and Economic Freedom in Ayn Rand's "Objectivist" newsletter.
Alan Greenspan, "Gold and Economic Freedom", 1966 is worth a read.
50 minutes of pure, unadulterated rage fuel via CFR's Conversation With Alan Greenspan http://youtu.be/XqHNF6NOpoE enjoy.
Greenspan has a long history of backtracking on previous statements. Read Panderer to Power by Frederick Sheehan.
Time will tell regarding Greenspan.
So Greenspan bought as much gold as he could at $1200 and is now long GOLD ! LMAO !
What's next? Greenspan will come out next month and say the Miners offer meaningful appreciation?
So, what's he sayin - TPTB bought up as much manipulated as they could, so let the price rise to the sky?
I'm not trusting this bastard.
He should have advocated the $1012
Pt coin.
Naturally, not being a CFR member, I didn't see the presentation.
Does anyone know if he concluded his remarks with an animated outburst of the expression "psyyyych!"?
I have been stacking silver, hoping this is a good bet too.
Silver is a good bet if you anticipate inflation.
Gold may be better during deflation.
Both may lose purchasing power if real interest rates rise.
Can someone point me in the right direction to understand the above (silver for inflation gold for deflation) I have never heard of that before now.
Here's the thought process:
Silver is an industrial commodity, so during inflation, should hold its value, along with any other commodity.
Gold is money, so should increase in value as money substitutes (such as debt) are defaulted upon or restructured.
Gold is famously correlated to real interest rates. Larry Summers wrote a famous academic paper on it: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1680
at 70 whatever to 1 GSR, I think it will be a great bet.
Gold cratering right on queue.
Ok, for the last time,,, who's the smartest guys in the room? uhm, slow the supply on the electric grid until they scream and then we double the supply charges based on demand. Increase buyback -- YOY investor relations fabricate profits and return -- send to offshore accounts and party like 1999.
Next thing you know, Greenspam will be on King World News or buddying up to Jim Sinclair. Pathetic.
"Hey everyone, today we have another blockbuster guest, former fed head greenspan- but first, we want to clue you in on a mineral rich deposit that just been discovered off the coast of bora bora with over a gillion tons of pure gold, ticker symbol..."
I'm shocked he couldn't figure out an excuse to blame the American public for QE's failure. He's slipping. The end must be nigh.
Greenspan knows the jig will be up soon and he is fighting for some small amount of legacy redemption. Better late than never I suppose, but if he truly had integrity, he would have called the system out while he had the power to do something about it. It's as if he started a fire that burned out of control, and now that the whole neighborhood is burned down he is trying to put out the last smoking embers.
Call out the system?
Are you kidding?
He wanted to live a few more years.
A sell gold signal for sure.
Remember The Maestro's everyone should have an adjustable rate mortgage call?
Down 17 fiats today. The smart $$ is selling!
Epic gold buying opportunity ... GC may break below 1200 and stops to 1190.
Looks like the tribe is going to artificially deflate gold prices...again. These people are literally financial terrorists that destroy lives through their shady practices. The time is coming where they will be held accountable for their actions. Going to be messy.
“Going to be messy.”
Of course it will be messy. But for who… those who submissively march to the slaughter… or those who perpetrated it?
We do have a choice in this matter: for, Americans have the power to redress any grievance that could be named – and thus, exercise sovereignty; but they REFUSE to use that power. There are three main reasons for this failure: one is that they have no knowledge of such power; the second, they’ve been herded into a kind of impotent stupor by medication and indoctrination; the third, that they aid, benefit or were complicit in such evil (full article).
There’s a remedy for all three of these failures: 1) learn, and use, the law and procedures of redress; 2) follow a health regimen that has REDUCED – not slowed – my biological age 50 years; and, 3) see number one.
It will undoubtedly be "messy" for all involved, however more than likely for the sheep that refuse to do anything about it due to being mentally colonized since birth. They are mindless drones incapable of free thought. Those of us who are awake will make the jew regret their transgressions. These people have been "persecuted", I prefer the term prosecuted, since the beginning of time for their practices.
I agree wholeheartedly about the health regimen and purifying ones body (I printed out link you attached), but attemepting to fix this through redress and the law is a joke. It has been thoroughly corrupted. The only remedy is hot lead, followed by more hot lead.
This unwind is going to be a shitshow for all, and a shit sandwich for most. If you are very well politcally connected, you will be able to use the emergency exit that the fucktards will create for themselves. If not, well, hope you are good marksman.
Timely time bomb! WTF. Watch the discussion at CFR of all places.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHNF6NOpoE&feature=youtu.be
Hi SharkBit,
Did you understand something? Even when turning the volume to the highest I can not understand something. Do you have a transcript ?
regards
His wife says that even if he flosses 3X a day, his breath still smells like something nasty crawled into his asshole months ago and died.
Feed him to the sharks!
Guess satan doesn't want him yet, he's still doing his work.
On second though, the sharks would probably spit him out.
Even sharks wouldn't eat his gristly old dried up ass.
As gold drops another 1.5% today. <sigh...>
Failed to help? But Obola's bankster-elite supporters are all driving exotic luxury cars now and buying up New York Shitty real estate hand over fist.
Surely this helped the economy, right?
Market is collapsing- a total meltdown....vix is soaring
Greenspan was wrong about everything- someone is expecting his predictions to be right?
at leat today i wasnt squeezed....but it will happen tomorrow....
He observed that history shows central banks can only prick bubbles at great economic cost. “It’s only by bringing the economy down can you burst the bubble,” and that was a step he wasn't willing to take while helming the Fed, he said.
Which means that Greenspan knew it was a bubble all along.
Now he tells us!
Paging Captain Obvious....
Super double + + BULLISH!!
This is what happens when you put a bunch of self-servers in charge of the country. Morale among the working population drops, and productivity suffers. The Fed doesn't have a way to add that dimension to how they crunch their numbers, but they'd better figure it out soon, because it's not going away until the poor leadership goes away, which I doubt will happen.
Buy Buy Buy! -JC
In 1966, Greenspan wrote a paper on gold describing it as the only real money. That's long before he became a shill.
Greenspan also suggested people get adj rate home loans, nobody listens to Greenspan
Few people realize that Greenspan was originally an Austrian School economist who was seduced to the dark side by the lure of power. He believed in his own omnipotence so much he lost sight of the truth. Few people also realize he was a sound money/gold advocate and wrote what is probably one of the best essays on the subject of the need for gold as a backing for currencies. Without it, he says
"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.
This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
Greenspan wrote the above in 1967. That he still believes in a gold standard but did nothing to promote its reinstatement during his tenure as Fed chief speaks volumes of his character. I doubt history will treat him well.
A little history...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/what-caused-a-brilliant-young-economi...
And the 1967 essay in entirety...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/gold_and_e...
Which is why they absolutely have to manipulate gold prices.
Alan Greenspan was never an Austrian economist. He contributed nothing to the discipline.
Writing an article about the gold standard doesn't make him an Austrian economist. Several economists have written on it that use a positivist approach.
It's usually best not to comment unless you know what you're talking about.
From the Mises Institute itself ... entitled "Greenspan's Austrian Roots".
http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=338
This is Anakin Skywalker, IRL. He's Darth Vader now. He's on his deathbed confessing to his son, Luke.
I imagine that Bix Weir is grinning right now.
Fuck him and the menorah he rode in on.
Gold is still significantly overvalued by historical standards. But I guess I would buy some, just in case shit hits the fan and another gold rush begins.
"At the end of 1992, just days after Clinton’s election as president of the US, Alan Greenspan, head of the Federal Reserve at that time, went to see the new president. The famous economist and supporter of the neoliberal economy of deregulation, warned Clinton to withdraw his campaign promises for social reform, because, as he claimed, the deficit reached a dangerously high level. Greenspan told Clinton that he should cut government spending, so that interest rates would go down and the markets would boom. He believed that markets would transform America, not politics. It was the beginning of the full deregulated market for the US and the world. After September 11, and given the great speculative bubble that was created during the previous decade, it seemed that the American economy was about to collapse. Then Greenspan took action by cutting down the interest rates several times. The goal was simple: to encourage American consumers to borrow and spend. The consumers’ desires would become the engine that would stabilize the system. It was a huge risk, because cutting the interest rates to almost zero, Greenspan released a flood of cheap money into the economy, which in the past led always to inflation and dangerous instability. But this time it didn’t happen. A huge consuming boom began, bigger than any other in history, without inflation. Everything seemed to remain stable and the system seemed that it could manage itself without any direct political control." "But ultimately, the reason for this unusual booming was the exact opposite. It happened due to the massive exercise of political power, from an elite thousand miles away. The Chinese government kept the exchange rate of the country at a low level. Therefore, the Chinese products became cheap and flooded America. And to pay for them, the US dollars flooded China. But rather than spend this money for the population, the Chinese leaders loaned them immediately back to America by buying government bonds. It was a perfect system of cheap goods and cheap money inflow in the US, all controlled by the Chinese political power. And that’s what created stability. From this, came an orgy of lending from banks to even most unreliable borrowers in the US. Although this time, the deregulated market had been stabilized thanks to the political intervention of China, the bankers wanted to make more money." http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2012/07/the-illusion-of-self-regulati...
The other big event during the Clinton years, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the law that kept the banks from gambling with depositor's money.
Thank Robert Rubin for that, during his years of public 'service'.
Actually, it was a Republican from Texas that got Glass Stegall repealed. Him and his wife made a fortune off that little nugget. Phil Graham I believe was his name...
I thought I wouldn't hear that from him until a deathbed confession....
It's always been about Gold all throughout the ages....he knows that...that's why the members of his temple have last names like Goldstein and Silverstein and not Printstein or Fiatstein.....
but, as the diaspora progresses - the names, as always are mutable.
if 'goldman' wasn't the best you could do, and goldberg isn't tiny either - they probably become things like 'bitman' or 'bitberg'?
He was a student of Ayn Rand and although I have a lot of sympathy with much of her philosophy the path that Greenspan has taken more than paved the way for the destructive situation that Rand predicted. The only saving grace is that this is a recurring pattern of human behavior and they may have merely speeded things up.
Artytom - Indeed, repeating pattern of evolution with slight gains caused mostly by pain. I have a feeling our general choices my be just evolving fast or slow, like a Likert scale of 1-10. Evolve too slow and boredom and angst occurs. Evolve too fast and the herd gets worn down from the sprint.
Like all of nature, there are predators. Excess draws them out to feast. Funny, it seems like we're the only species that purposely chooses to appoint hungry wolves to devour ourselves, make us run faster and give us evolutionary pain. Of course shutting them of when a meal becomes an endless feast and starts destroying the entire herd is easier said than done.
Central Banking is paid to lie to governments. The people pay politicians to tell us also how beautiful we are and lie to us. Both groups are overpaid.
Alan Greenspan put the country on evolutionary speed 9 with Clinton. We did not have time to adjust to the trade imbalance, rapid debt loads or attempted expansion. To me it was like Greenspan saw the bridge out ahead and used quad stacking debt fueled consumption to clear the other side. His hubris told him he could manage the levers on the rocky landing on the other side of the bridge. As the Fonz would say "He jumped the shark."
The inflation stage of the depression is over, now for the reverse winds of the hurricane and deflationary depression. Some here argued against the inevitable descent into hell. We did what we could do. Now the brighter and ambitious should spend there time being a shrewd gazelle and selling some things to the wolves to retrieve some seed corn. Life isnt fair, the majority doesnt get to pick the speed of our evolution. Some are born wealthy which is a huge advantage in life, But I hope some of you born with high intelligence spend less time complaining and more time using your life's lottery gift of higher IQ and selling back some of the wealth.
Modern communications, particularly the Internet is a giant mirror. Lying to ourselves, hypocricy and blame-shifting for our collective struggle is working less (as it should) nearing the end ofour evolution. It doesn't mean however, that the adjustments are easy for anyone.
"As a I ransack there house they want to shake my hand." - From 'The Seeker' by The Who
He was an economist, Ayn Rand disciple and gold bug before he was a Keynesian. Today's economists seem more Keynesian than Keynes, but share his authoritarian view of the state. So Greenspan's recent questioning of the value of regulation and regulators, along with his trust in the market, is a welcomed breath of fresh air.
Peter Schiff said FED won't end QE
looks like he was wrong again
gold 5000? probably 1000 sooner :)
Stay tuned for the next episode. What we may get next is another brilliant idea, not QE, but something brand new that's just as stupid, but sounds smart.
Earlier this year Schiff predicted that the Fed would not taper QE3. His logic seemed sound, but his prediction was wrong.
When the Fed began tapering QE3 Schiff said that if QE3 were ended then another "QE4" scheme would need to fill the void soon after. We have yet to see this, but it seems very obvious to me in lieu of ZIRP.
I don't agree. Assets are overpriced so even the wealthy investors begin to argue against such policy.
American culture is one of dramatic flair. I predict false flag to tame the unsustainable debt load and liabilities. Kicking the can only works so long.
While I look forward to a new cycle of innovation, I won't lie and say I look forward to the couple years of very tough pain thats coming. Thats the time to keep your head down and mouth closed as government goes into final survival mode. The police state/tax collectors are evidence this has begun occuring and like any collective group, will fight tooth and nail to avoid the shrinkage.
Once gag orders are issued, its your que to stay silent and get out of the way. The evolutionary cycle will always be won so to speak but you also want to win the battle of survival by being wise. Advance and retreat and are known battle tactics and applied at certain times for good reasons.
Don't buy the poppycock of QE ending anytime soon. From whence shall the federal deficit be financed without it? Excess reserves at the Fed is the only pool of dollars in the entire world that could satisfy the black hole in DC and I don't believe banks are going to begin investing reserves in financial assets in the same manner the Fed has.
It's QE to infinity. If the NWO fails in keeping the world in turmoil, then this charade will collapse in the face of more sound economies. Sadly, WW III will occur before it does.
Germany fell to WW I. Brittain surrendered its dominance after WW II. Now it's time for the US to bow to China. Boy are we gonna get our ass kicked.
Alan is a totally evil hubris ass-hole. He deregulates the market and battles against Brooksley Born (CFTC chief) on derivitive deregulation in order to get things started for an economic collapse that will make the culprits the saviors of a new economic system they had planned all along. In the mean time he goes old school and starts adopting his old Ayn Rand ideology (Gold bug).
What gets me is that the bastard feels no obligation to explain how he gave 180 deg. different advice all along.
If I'm not mistaken, Catholics refer to this as a confessional.
Agreed, but, I don't think he will be finished until he admits that, "Goldman made me do it."
Cliff's Notes Greenspan:
"Somebody got rich, is getting rich and will continue to get obscenely wealthy every time I blow my death breath into a bank of microphones."
Makes me want to salvage my boat and sell all my gold when a lying liar tells me to buy gold. Maybe he meant buy "Goldman"......
... gold is the place to put money.
correction: gold is money.
WTF this dude is playing. He was on and on about QE was working, now gold is the real investment.
Well, Alan's dad must be pretty disppointed knowing what the fucking fuck he has done to destroy the austrian economics.
All this are true but gold will not go up either!
Sorry for breaking it to you.
Gold will stay as it is forever. It's everything around it that changes. People's opinion of it will change and that my friend is what should be read into Greenspan's comments.
‘read into ‘
Ambiguity has always been Greenspan’s product. He’s the world’s greatest.
Sure is a mind frick, huh.
Anyone know the net of his wise v. foolish economic decisions?
one strategy to gain influence and advantage,
another position to consolidate the theft.
all the "important" survivors will be either bamboozled,
indifferent or grateful.
the man was born at night, just not last night.
I wish that I had tons of the shiny yellow lead to sell to the "gold dogmatists" so that I could use the proceeds to buy real stuff that has practical value and income-producing business investments.
Socialiam is Cancer - That is exactly what Greenspan is telling less-educated CFR members to do with this "chat". Hold some dry powder for the next cycle.
But first the final rounds of pain and reorganization. Plus when the the world returns to a gold standard, lead by the East this time (some here realize the gold and production went east) your better off holding gold in the beginning until a new virtuous investment cycle emerges. You dont want to hold paper assets at the end of Laizzez Faire or paper standard but you do with a new reserve currency backed by gold which China already IS according to the IMF.
I look upon PMs as a hedge. I don't expect them to behave in the same way a financial asset such as stocks and bonds do (that is, generate a return), preciesly because they do not finance productive activity. However, they have stood the test of time as a store of value, especially in times of financial chaos.
As a previous poster said, there is no loss (or gain) until a position is sold. I fervently hope that I will simply pass on my holdings to my children, as that will mean that there was never a crisis severe enough to prompt me to sell. But such a crisis will eventually occur. When it does, I want it to be me or someone I care about who is holding this asset.
I have tried to hedge with enough Au, Ag, Pt, Pd to sell a small amount when it jumps. The rest- a store of value.
Hopefully I can pass it on to the kids.
shits real when greenspan starts speaking the truth
"FIGHT'S ON"
I thought this piece was satire until I read the comments.
W T F ?
Greenspan is plagiarizing ZH's 5 year thesis. These guys have no shame. Greenspan must have gotten a cancer diagnosis and is on his Keynesian deathbed.
The Maestro speaks from the Council of Foreign Relation pinheads.
Alan Greenspand and his wife Andrea Mitchell are selling their gold holdings, so he's ginning up some greater fools.
YUM
WE LOVES LOVELY GOLD.
Exactly... price goes "up", suckers sell.... then governments buy.
Governments sell, "cheaply", suckers BUY again.
Amazing how many x-ray frequency analyzers have been sold over the past few years, and how many "we buy gold" signs have gone up banking on that.
Now "They" collect the gold on the cheap.
Surprise?!?!
Silver bitchez
Yes, in the selling of the last ten or so years, we have certainly made PLENTY of "silver bitches".
Now bend over....
For sure bankster. You can tell by his sex preference.
Actually I swing both ways, Gold and Silver Bitchez ;)
where is the proof that he really said this?
if so, man, what a great display of havock Alzheimer's can create. incredible.
What the fuck, You told everyone on CNBC that plan B was to burn down the inventory. Are you senile?.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000050025
and once again (as with DSK) when you're no longer part of status quo, you start telling the truth.
The more gold you have the less likely you are to submit to the man.....start feeling independent?
The more gold you have, the more likey you will give it to me (a landowner-farmer), the more likely you will sell it to me (a coin/bullion dealer), and the more likely I will easily get your name from my eariler two lists!
And I can wait a long time outside your house before you sleep, and I fill it with chlorine (etc gas) through the chimney or drain pipe!
P.S. yeah, even though everyone NEEDS it, I just ran out of ammo and propane (I mean for sale this week, that is), I'll drop by in my clearly marked truck for a delivery, next week, when I have more.... you'll welcome me, I'm sure.... my "workers" will bring it right up to your....
Bankster scum, is that you?
Yeah, once you've gathered it all up, we'll come for you hotshot..
He's at the age where he's simply moving backwards through time. Next week he'll announce we should put all our money in blankies.