It was Fed week. As widely expected, the central bank cut interest rates another 25 basis points on Wednesday. But the real Fed action happened on Tuesday morning and most people didn’t even notice.
In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about all of the Fed mechanizations – not just the rate cut – and what it all could mean.
The Federal Reserve did exactly what the markets expected on Wednesday, cutting interest rates by another 25 basis points.
The central bank sent out mixed signals about what will happen next. Markets widely construed the Fed’s messaging as somewhat hawkish. In its policy statement, the Fed said the US economy is growing at a “moderate” rate and the labor market “remains strong. It cut rates, “in light of the implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures.”
In his podcast, Peter Schiff reiterated this was just another step toward zero and said whatever the Fed wants to call its mechanizations, they’re going to stink to high heaven.
Peter Schiff appeared on RT Boom Bust on Tuesday (Sept. 17) to talk about interest rates, gold and the dollar. Peter said the fiat currency system may not survive the next recession.
The conversation started focusing on the repo operations conducted by the Federal Reserve early in the week, Peter said the financial media and Wall Street are being much too complacent about what’s going on.
Peter Schiff has been saying that the Federal Reserve is going to take interest rates back to zero and launch another round of quantitative easing in order to reinflate the bubble economy after the next crash. The central bank successfully pulled this off after the 2008 crisis. By dropping rates to zero and holding them there for nearly a decade, and running three rounds of QE, the Fed has reinflated the real estate bubble, blown up a bond bubble and pumped up the stock market. But Peter said it’s not going to work the next time around. Instead, Fed monetary policy will tank the dollar and lead to an inflationary recession.
So, why can’t the Fed pull off another rescue? Peter explained why he thinks it’s not possible during an interview on the Tom Woods Show.
In a move “Bond King” Jeffrey Gundlach said could be a prelude to the next round of quantitative easing, the New York Fed conducted a repurchase operation involving about $53 billion in debt instruments on Tuesday. The move to designed to unplug the financial system’s “plumbing” with an injection of cash was the first such move since the financial crisis a decade ago.
The purchases involved about $40.8 billion of Treasurys, $11.7 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $600 million in agency debt, according to a CNBC report. The move was prompted by the recent surge in interest rates that drove the overnight repo rate Monday to as high as 8.5%.
The New York Fed was expected to repeat the operation on Wednesday.
Former Reagan administration OMB Director David Stockman has called this the “mother of all bond bubbles.” Has that bubble popped? That remains to be seen, but bonds got hammered last week.
Bonds have pretty much moved in tandem with gold over the last several weeks as perceived safe-haven trades. Peter Schiff talked about it in his latest podcast, saying he thinks the bond market is eventually going to decouple from gold.
The price of gold whipsawed this week, driven up and down by various headlines. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey covers some of the big news that moved the markets. But he said that we need to keep our eyes on the big picture. All of this is happening in front of a backdrop of surging debt driven by central bank policy. How much do we owe and what does it mean for the future? Mike talks about it.
Corporations are piling on the debt.
Last week, companies borrowed $74 billion in the US investment-grade bond market. It was the largest corporate debt increase for any comparable period since they started tracking such things in 1972.
The Federal Reserve makes life easier for politicians by pursuing monetary policies that shield them from the consequences of bad economic decision-making. By keeping interest rates low and printing money, the Fed hides the nefarious impact of government spending, trade wars and other bad policies.
Peter Schiff talked about this in a recent podcast.
This week has been relatively quiet in the markets. Gold has drifted up and down as traders wait to see what kind of message Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver during his Jackson Hole speech. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey covers some tidbits of news and speculates about what Powell will say. Then he pivots and talks a little bit about President Trump and the strange economic tightrope that he’s trying to walk.
