According to Owen Ullmann in an op-ed published by USA Today, there are some unsung “heroes” in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic – the brave and courageous bankers at the Federal Reserve.
I think Ulmann misspelled “villains.”
The Federal Reserve has launched QE infinity. As Peter Schiff put it, the Fed has gone all-in on quantitative easing.
So, what does this mean? What are the ramifications of all this debt monetization and money printing? In his podcast, Peter said this is where the problems really start.
US stock markets enjoyed another Tuesday rebound with the announcement of even more monetary stimulus from the Fed and the hope of government fiscal stimulus and bailouts. In his podcast, Peter Schiff said this should make it crystal clear that the government and central bank are rigging the markets.
The Federal Reserve cut rates to zero and expanded quantitative easing on Sunday. How did the markets reward this latest monetary stimulus?
They crashed.
In his podcast, Peter said he thinks we’ve passed the point of no return.
On June 4, 2019, during an interview on Fox Business, Peter Schiff said the Federal Reserve was going to cut rates to zero and launch another massive round of quantitative easing.
March 16, 2020 — here we are.
It appears we’ve pretty much reached complete panic mode.
The longest bull market in history came to an abrupt end on Wednesday. Wall Street followed up with another massive sell-off on Thursday. The S&P 500 had its worst day since Black Monday in 1987. Even gold was down. Meanwhile, the Fed tried to stem the tide, announcing a new round of quantitative easing. But the tide wasn’t stemmed. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey gives an overview of the week’s events and talks about the elephant in the room.
The US is heading for economic lockdown as the impact of the coronavirus grows. To cope with the crisis, President Trump has promised fiscal stimulus. The actual plan remains unclear, but the Trump administration has floated a reduction in payroll taxes, along with bailouts and loan guarantees for struggling industries. While the details are murky, one thing is certain — it will cost billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the US government is already living far above its means. Uncle Sam recorded another massive budget deficit of $235 billion last month, according to the latest Treasury Department report.
Yesterday was “Reversal Tuesday.” Stocks rallied on the promise of government stimulus. The dollar and the bond market also turned around. In his podcast, Peter Schiff said the bond market was the one to watch because it’s possible that the promise of more stimulus could have finally pricked the overblown bond bubble.
President Trump floated the idea of a payroll tax cut. There is also talk of bailouts for oil companies and other industries hit hard by the coronavirus, such as airlines and cruise companies.
Stock markets have been getting hammered, ostensibly because of the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Peter Schiff has been saying this isn’t really about the virus. It was the pin that pricked the bubble. If it wasn’t coronavirus, it would have been something else.
Regardless, the Fed hit the panic button last week and slashed interest rates by half a percent. Peter has described this as throwing gasoline on a fire. In other words, the central bank is exacerbating the problem.
It’s been a roller-coaster ride on Wall Steet. Stocks whipsawed up and down — mostly down. Gold dipped and then rebounded. And the Fed cut rates in a move that looked an awful lot like a replay of 2008. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey gives an overview of the topsy-turvy week, and tries to make sense out of what’s going on and where it might lead us.
