Tag: The Federal Reserve

ZIRP Era in Pictures

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) was instigated by a credit induced collapse of the US financial system and perpetuated in December of 2008 by desperate financial policy makers as a fix to problems they created in the first place.

In reality, it is simply an epic distortion of normal economic signals that cleaned up the mess created by previous policy distortions (like the commercial credit bubble of the Greenspan era) by systematically (5+ years and running) main lining new distortions into the system.

zirp

So in addition to this picture, which could one day hang in a monetary museum with the title ‘Grandma and Her Savings Account Bail Out Wealthy Asset Owners’, let’s take a walk down memory lane and marvel at some other pictures created by this policy… Continue reading "ZIRP Era in Pictures" →

Pigs no Longer Fly; What Are the Implications?

Posted on by admin

Along with the highly publicized loss of leadership from big tech, the US stock market is now in danger of losing another, and possibly more important leader, the piggies or banking sector.

While the weekly chart of BKX has not yet broken down, it is very close to doing so after sporting a negative RSI divergence for the better part of the last year. We should not jump the gun with bearish scenarios, but as always we want to be among those looking forward and ready, just like in 2007, which was the last time BKX-SPX began to roll over in earnest.

bkx

NFTRH has followed the BKX-SPX (leadership) ratio every step of the way during the current leg of the cyclical stock bull market. Most recently we noted that BKX-SPX failed to make higher highs on two occasions. This put the ratio – and by extension the stock market – on alert as we watched for a lower low.  Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to a lower low. Continue reading "Pigs no Longer Fly; What Are the Implications?" →

Why the Fed Does Not Control Inflation and Deflation

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By: Elliott Wave International

Despite the Fed's leverage and its attempt to inflate throughout the economy, the deflationary pressures in the U.S. are overwhelming. Watch this six-minute clip from Steve Hochberg's presentation at the Orlando Money Show. To learn more about the inflationary/deflationary process, go to www.deflation.com.

Continue reading "Why the Fed Does Not Control Inflation and Deflation" →

Don't Keep Your Gold and Silver in the US, Says Marc Faber

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Publisher Marc Faber discusses the fragile state of the US and global financial systems… how rising inflation will affect the average American… how soon the bubble will burst… and why gold and silver will triumph.

Here are a few highlights:

"The US is a country that likes to create trouble, but they don’t like to clean up things."

"We've now been five years into the bull market and the US economy bottomed out in June 2009. We already had a crack-up boom—not in the economy of the typical household, but in the economy of the super-well-to-do people, whose asset prices rose dramatically and as a result created a huge wealth inequality." Continue reading "Don't Keep Your Gold and Silver in the US, Says Marc Faber" →

ZIRP Up Next?

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Everyone expects Janet Yellen to be a rolling over, inflationist stooge just like they did Ben Bernanke.  Bernanke came on board after Alan Greenspan had taken the Fed Funds rate up to around 5% if I remember correctly.  Inflationists and gold bugs thought they had it in the bag when 'Helicopter Ben' assumed control.

Indeed, Bernanke did what he was supposed to do (per the 'Helicopter 'Ben' script) as systemic stresses began to gather in 2007, addressing that pesky Funds rate, culminating in December, 2008's official ZIRP (zero interest rate policy).  Here again is the chart showing the S&P 500's 'Hump #3' attended by this most beneficial monetary policy.

spx.irx

As noted again and again, the much trumpeted 'taper' of QE is not only not a negative for the economy, we have made a strong case that its mechanics are actually a positive, in the near term at least.  But putting ZIRP on the table would be a whole different ball of wax. Continue reading "ZIRP Up Next?" →