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The Astonishing Rise of Central Bank Fear
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Anyone who looks at central bankers speak can sense the fear behind their absurd bravado, and the dishonesty of their public confidence.
The extraordinary disconnect between soaring stock markets and stagnating real economies has been gleefully embraced by all who benefit from the disconnect:
The financial media, brokerages, investment banks, politicos who have made stocks the barometer of "prosperity" and of course the top 5% who own roughly 3/4 of the financial assets of the nation.
Even more extraordinary is the rise in central bank fear that has unleashed extremes of monetary policy. If the real economy is as great as advertised, then why are central banks dropping monetary neutron bombs on a nearly weekly basis?
What are they so afraid of? And if they're not afraid of something, then why are they constantly hyping their threadbare commitment to "do whatever it takes," pushing real interest rates into negative territory and buying stocks and bonds hand over fist?
I've prepared a chart depicting central bank fear, the stock market and the real economy. As central bank fear/panic pushes higher, the banks have unleashed a torrent of PR and monetary programs that have dragged stocks higher with every phony pronouncement and every new free money for financiers chumming of the stock market.
No wonder the feeding frenzy never stops--the central banks are clearly terrified of what will happen should they stop dumping monetary chum in the waters.

What is equally extraordinary is the abject failure of all the central banks' free money for financiers to move the needle of the real economy. Virtually every bright spot in the economy results not from organic growth but from the expansion of a new credit bubble: for example, subprime auto loans.
After tens of trillions of dollars in stimulus and trillions squandered on asset purchases to suppress interest rates and prop up the stock market, the real economies are drifting into recession or stagnation.
The central bank response to this abject failure? More free money for financiers.
Anyone who looks at central bankers speak can sense the fear behind their absurd bravado, and the dishonesty of their public confidence. They're not just afraid--they're in a panic. Every press conference and every announcement is supposed to express confidence, but what they really express is terror: terror that doing more of what failed spectacularly will not just stop working--it will trigger the collapse of the entire rotten, corrupt system of central banks and free money for financiers.
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The wool is fully pulled. The politics of Depression postponement are losing their effect. Protect your assets.
.44 buddy.
"No Rate Normalization During My Lifetime"
~ Ben Bernanke (May 2014)
"Buy gold"
~ Alan Greenspan (Oct 2014)
This article is exactly what I've been saying here!
"They" are fearful as hell knowing there's nothing they can do to stop the market from imploding now
Cause they've used up all their means to do it the past few years
So expect moar desperate head fakes and scare tactics to ward off sellers.
" The Fed has checked itself into the 'Roach Motel' of monetary policy"
~ Peter Schiff (2010)
Once upon a time there was a country called Russia that ran an Empire called the USSR and in that Empire, all of the data released and words spoken of all of the people in power were lies and falsehoods. And pretty soon, even the people in power, because the numbers were so false and the history redacted so many times, didn't even know or understand what was transpiring, except that it was no good and was going to end poorly.
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie,"
~ JC Juncker (May 2011)
And he is going to have to do a lot more lieing to explain how Luxembourg's policy on Corporate tax arrangements (Including changes made during his Presidency) can possibly be in compliance with EU tax law. Of course, now being the (Unelected) EU President does mean his new lies carry more weight with other (Also unelected) EU officials.
+1 knuckles. The ability of tyrants to rule diminishes over time because each successive generation of tyrants has less and less clue as to what is real and what is propaganda
I reckon maybe 70% of US Congress/Senate takes the CPI at face value, and 90% dont appreciate the historical role of sound money. How the fuck they expect their empire to prosper with such ignorance is a joke
but hey knuk at least under that system you knew you were getting a bowl of soup. Government accounted for 13% of US GDP in 1914, 42% today. France is 75%, and we're all headed for 100%. It's like some kind of new hyper-communism, with none of the benefits to the people, all to the Politboro
You so right, Knukles ! It was the same all over the entire red empire, from Berlin and Prague, to Beijing and Saigon. However, people knew what was happening; many were listening to short wave radio programs (the informational equivalent of the internet, back in the '70 & '80) like Radio Free Europe, or the Voice of America. People also knew that EVERYTHING coming from the official media was basically a lie, so they didn't believe anything they said.
Unfortunately, present day America has about as much credibility as former Soviet Union. We got to the point where you are much better off disbelieving everything that comes out of an official source, than the other way around...
Soooooooo many people I know are starting ti have that exact reaction, whether conscious or just plain taken as the norm and accepted. It the Goobermint says it, it's likely not only is it "wrong" but actually the "opposite"
r u referring to Russia or the US of A. Hard to tell.
too bad they are PARALIZED WITH FEAR...as what they do each time makes it worse. Deflation would have fixed many problems...but the bankers don't want to lose money...hence the printing presses! Wonder how many zeroes they have to lop off our currencies! I had once had a turksh hotel room for one million and bought a t-shirt there for like 30,000
Oh, there are still a few bullets left in their guns. Directly intervening in the stock market, for one. Purchasing USTs through a straw buyer, like Belgium. Stealing people's retirement accounts "for their own safety." And yes, it would be pitched that way - that they're just being protected from those evil Wall Street bankers (who would still be profiting from the theft in some way.)
Gives a whole new meaning to my-RA. Used to be yours, now its mine.
Your assets and your asses.
Dear banksters,
My guillotine and I wish you a nail-gun and highrise fall free New Year.
See you on the "go around."
An American, not US subject.
Do you see anything wrong with this chart...
Well, yeah, it's completely imaginary and has no scales on the X and Y axes.
What sort of data is used to graph central bank fear?
That I might agree with the OPINION of the writer does not mean that I'm going to slavishly accept his kindergarten-level statistical expertise as an actual argument.
Present some real facts and make a real case or give it a pass.
You're a fucking idiot.
Or you work for a bank/brokerage
Or both!
B requires A
I hear what you're saying but you have to admit that the colour portion of the chart above would make for a geat logo/emblem for the G20 or some central bank.
Every central bank has annouced more printing and zero rates and stock market buying....ALL IS NORMAL! /SARC
It's a case of the real versus the surreal.
The speculator v the saver
The politician v the citizen
The photocopy machine v precious metals
Propaganda v Snowden et al
Puppets and muppets v Putin
Hey who doesn't love a printing press of free money
With all that money you would want to make sure that you bought more printing presses to double up on your good fortune and avoid down time in case of breakdown. If Gutenberg could see what the printing press has been used for and how much wealth is stored inside a computer he would be freaking out.
Its all about logistics and energies. Good luck.
What's the data set for the CB fear curve?
I'd genuinely like to know. It's obviously not the VIX or interest rates.
Precisely. What sort of graph offers no scales and unconfirmable data sets, abd then asks you to tell them what is wrong with it?
Does anyone really believe the central banks are living in fear? CHS is a rube. The central banks are toasting each other every night it continues to transfer the wealth of nations and NO ONE does anything to stop it. The Elites can't believe we are so brainwashed. They figured it would all work, but look at the results!
They don't appear to be living in fear. The mask slipped a little on Sept. 18 2008. I had Bloomberg turned on that day and this clip played a million times. I got so tired of it I turned the sound off. As it continued to play endlessly I finally noticed Paulson's body language and it hit me, He and Bernanke are afraid of something. Paulson is as nervous as a whore in church. Watch him in the background with the sound off as all the political bumpkins pontificate about how things are getting fixed. His presentation and the abrupt end looks like the efforts of someone who has to do something he is clearly uncomfortable with then he bolts at the first instant he is finished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISvif1OaTK4
Compare his demeanor a few days later when he didn't get what he wanted from Congress. The mask is back on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qgHdkBCKU
The polls say the Fed is very unppular, some are brainwashed but most have figured it out. The problem is no one can stop it. Hmmm, would I vote for Jeb or Hillary to rein in the Fed?
I don't get the sense that they are fearful at all. They have been brazenly shoving bullshit "market action" down our throats and up our asses for several years. It is just getting more and more brazen. They want to control it all, and they think they can. Hubris is not fear.
The clock is ticking on the Great Harlot
They should be afraid. Everyone seems to want to kill them. I'd like to see them jump.
I am unclear as to what the data is that this chart is produced from.
"What is equally extraordinary is the abject failure of all the central banks' free money for financiers to move the needle of the real economy."
It's Weimar again - the banking mafia manipulating the market to gain ownership of *everything*.
They can't control their greed. Even the ones who realise it can't stop themselves.
They fear the masses, only a few of the masses have to get it figured out to make their life hell. This way, they can say, "we tried to save you!". A few of the 99.9 will know better, some of them will be young and driven and spend their lives hunting them down. Not me, but some of you or your sons (or daughters) will track down elites and make them pay. They know this, just trying to cover their asses and paint themselves as the good guys.
I am fucking terrible at math, but I do know you need some type of variables for it to make any sense. Shit, was this guy on the toilet when he wrote this?
On the other hand, I agree. What I would like to read is how much of Putin's moves have accelerated their pants shitting.
The underlying point in all this is that to control a situation, you must control the narrative. The biggest lesson that the US establishment took from the Viet Nam war loss was that letting the media have free access and free reporting was a mistake. The inflormed public turned against the war, civil chaos ruled in America, and LBJ was forced to give up on running for re-election. Since then, the establishment and the government it controls have been very careful to control media access and to buy up and control 95% of the mainstream media (MSM). The MSM now acts as a mere conduit for government press releases. Investigative journalism has disappeared. Members of the press are not allowed in war zones unless "embedded" (in bed with) the troops. The military controls where they go and what they see, and even what they report.
This same principle is applied to elections and to news about Wall Street, the Fed, and the economy. Officially, unemployment is reported as 5.9%, but unofficially, it is said to be over 23%. Officially, new claims for unemployment benefits are down, but that may be only because fewer and fewer people get to work long enough in a job to qualify for benefits when they are let go. The latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to explain why so many people of working age do not have jobs is to say that those people do not want jobs - they have removed themselves from the "labor force" and hence are not to be counted as unemployed. The new story? There is nothing wrong with the economy, the problem is that so many people lack the inclination to work.
The central bankers have also learned from the failure of QE to create "lift off" since 2008. They have boxed themselves into a situation in which stopping QE risks severe deflation and economic and civil chaos. Their answer now is QE in perpetuity and Modern Monetary Theory - electronic money unconnected to any asset value, invented at zero cost at a keyboard in the Fed. In partnership with Wall Street, the Fed with its limitless fiat money can manage markets and interest rates and enrich itself and its cronies hugely. Precious metal prices can be managed by shorts on the paper precious metals exchanges. As long as the public accepts the new Fed/Wall Street "reality" show, the central bankers need have no fear. Unless the rest of the World stops accepting the USD - and that has been controlled, so far, by the US military and CIA taking down any nation's government that proposes to sell oil for any currency other than the USD.
I am thinking that the central bankers are sure that the owners of the international banks that own the central banks DO NOT have their back. The central bankers are flying naked.
Dear CB'ster:
The only solution to your fear is ...... JUMP
i can draw colored lines in a box as well, can I start posting on ZH
Fear? HA! This shit show has been in play since 1913 (officially and longer really) and until the revolution: bubbles, bubble pop, rinse and repeat. Don't count on the generations X or millenials waking up any time soon. Long fluoride, zionistas, GMO foods and chemtrails to dumb-down/reduce the population.
Orchestrated divide and confuse chaos for distraction, but "have fun storming the castle."
let it burn, the sooner the better