Is There Any Way This Can End Well?

[eurusdzn]

As a boomer i understand your frustration and accepet responsibility. I have my own theories
of who and where it started and it is prior to "us" We fancy ourselves more austere than the younger generations , shunning credit, square foot envy and other norms of this day.
Guaranteed , any forthcoming austerity will expose the mountain of debt , the generations prior
to mine(your generation) have taken on, as punitive to the generation prior to yours future growth/consumption. Same effect as our asset bubbles have on your future growth/consuption. And so on.
Did you think the hippies, acid droppers would rise to power? Do you think Bernies warriors
Ponying up an average $30 will effect change.
Best analogy i can give is to observe/contrast each decade/ or age group drive a car. Tremendous differences.
By the time when you are in your 60's 70's 80's you cannot tolearate impact or rapid new stimulus(which is normal when driving) . There is a total lack of regard for anyone around you, the aged driver. The road is your own. They are not trying to be rude or to piss you off.
I say you should blare the horn, cut them off to the curb, and scream get the fuck off the road
you old bastard. Survial of the fittest? Nope, its who has the money that wins.[/QUOTE]

 

[fhl]

The Financial Times is reporting that the US Treasury announced that $500 billion of capital fled china during the first eight months of the year. And Bloomberg is reporting that the US Treasury maintains that the Chinese yuan still should appreciate as the factors that drive the yuan's appreciation remain in place.

Financial Times:

• US Treasury: capital outflows from China top $500bn.

Bloomberg:

• The U.S. Treasury dropped its view that China’s currency is “significantly undervalued” while saying that the forces driving appreciation in the longer term remain and China needs to allow such strengthening eventually.

Did anyone think that the US Treasury was anything other than a political arm?

 

[piezoe]

We all know the state of the financial world is far from good, just a few points:

Government debt at unprecedented levels.

Still at emergency easing levels 8 years later and we are still worried coming off that will crash the economy.

Equity and bond markets pretty much rigged... it is seen as political taboo for them ever to drop.

The whole world reliant on the state to always come to the rescue.

Eurozone "experiment" seeming to be cracking.

Rise of socialism.. Sanders in U.S Jeremy Corbyn in Uk

Printed a sh*t ton of money and still virtually zero inflation.


Thats just for starters, you can't talk to anyone in the markets that doesnt just shake their head and say "what a mess". BUT, humans love a scare story, we are always looking for a disaster. People have been calling for another 08 style crash since.. well 08. I think central bankers are morons for the most part. But you have to give them some respect they are highly educated people, its not in their interest to mess things up. My question is what is their theory behind all this? Is there anyway we can move forward and have a "normal" market and their plan work. Im not asking you to believe in it yourself. But im genuinely curious from an intellectual point of view what is their plan?

That everything seems headed in the wrong direction may be due to a misunderstanding of how the financial crisis was handled, and of QE. To begin, there has been no money printing, despite the common, incorrect use of that term as a description of QE. Had their been "printing" you would have seen much more inflation. Secondly, government debt, U.S. at least, is not at unprecedented levels. We are not "still at emergency easing levels". QE has ended in he U.S. The Eurozone QE has only just begun. It isn't "cracking" as you've described it; it is yet to be determined how effective it will be.

There is no rise in socialism evident to at least the mainstream thinkers. The U.S. is still by far the most capitalist country among developed nations. A person running as a candidate for U.S. President that describes himself as a democratic socialist in no way represents a "rise in socialism". Down through history, there have been socialists running in most U.S. national elections. Nothing new there. And according to quite a few Americans we have already had at least one Socialist President, FDR, and some think at least two, FDR and Obama.. So there is no "rise". It is already here according to those folks.

The Equity and bond markets are pretty much as they have always been, a bit "rigged" perhaps, but certainly no changes there.

The State is supposed to "come to the Rescue". What is the purpose of the State if not that?!!!

What is new is this widespread idea that central bankers are morons. That is a consequence of U.S. central bank operations being more open to public scrutiny than at any time in the past, and therefore drawing more notice from a public whose financial acumen is limited to balancing their checkbook and filling out 1040 EZ. The public has no background for deciding whether the You Tube videos they watch, or the populist politicians they follow, are right or wrong. These videos and politicians seem to make sense, and that's good enough for an uninformed public to conclude that we should go back to the gold standard, central bankers are all morons, and the central bank is responsible for all financial ills. In their minds, if only we could rid ourselves of the Central Bank, run by morons for private bank profits, and the IRS, run by morons for the purpose of harassing the President's political enemies and stealing our hard earned money and wasting it on useless programs like Headstart, welfare, the EPA, and the DOE, everything would be much better.

 

[Butterball]

Chicago will be the first of a wave of bailouts by the Federal government and a crash of the currency.

You have been writing of a Dollar crash for the past 5 years. The Dollar is up 30% in the same time frame.

 

[Fractals 'R Us]

What is new is this widespread idea that central bankers are morons

I've gotten a laugh out of that very thing. Anonymous posters have been coming to ET for quite a few years decrying the ignorance of the central bankers and I laugh every time...

 

[piezoe]

If zdreg is hanging upside down by his heels, that could explain his confusion over which direction the dollar is moving.

 

[fhl]

The State is supposed to "come to the Rescue". What is the purpose of the State if not that?!!!

.

I was always under the impression that the purpose of the state was to protect private property and the country. It was never supposed to 'come to the rescue' of one citizen by grabbing the property of another citizen.

I have always found it amazing that this new role of gov't is so taken for granted.

 

[der_kommissar]

I was always under the impression that the purpose of the state was to protect private property and the country. It was never supposed to 'come to the rescue' of one citizen by grabbing the property of another citizen.

I have always found it amazing that this new role of gov't is so taken for granted.

He'll "dance around his words" with a 1,000 word response, when 100 words would suffice...

 

[romik]

Insightful interview.

 

[piezoe]

This is good, insightful and a combination of right and wrong. Fundamentally, Feierstein does not understand QE, and that has led him to some incorrect conclusions. But on the other hand he is correct in some other respects. He has a tendency to think in terms of nominal numbers rather than real values and in terms of economies as though they were isolated, nevertheless he clearly recognizes they are not. This creates an undercurrent of disconnects in his economic thinking.