The media love to get a hold of buzz words and then give them a spin and a life all their own. Recent examples were the mainstream media's presentation of 'Operation Twist' – which was simply an official yield curve manipulation designed to sanitize and dampen inflationary signals – as an inflationary operation, and the 'Fiscal Cliff' drama that sent herds of conventional investors to the sidelines* when they should have been contrarian (and bullish) back in Q4, 2012.
Now we have the media on the job tending the 'Taper' herd. Among the many hyped up implications of 'Taper' according to the media are that it is bearish for gold. But I would put forth not only a rejection of that assertion but just maybe a call for the opposite; a bullish stance on gold in the face of a Fed being coerced by natural movements in the Treasury bond market to talk 'taper'.
As part of its QE operation, the Fed buys long-term Treasury bonds with newly printed money. It does so to try to keep interest rates down so that the economic recovery they have promoted does not fold in on itself, wheeze, roll over and die. They also buy distressed MBS, but this is a story about Treasury bonds. Continue reading "Gold: "Taper This""
