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Tag Archives: US Treasury
Deficits Create BIG Implications for US Dollar
“If we didn’t have the US dollar as the de facto reserve currency of the world, we’d be Greece. We are broke, bankrupt. REALLY bankrupt.” James Baker III, former US Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State, 4/10/11 The foregoing comment made to Fareed Zakaria on CNN and, hence, heard literally round the world, speaks for itself. As brash as this statement is, Jim Baker was a soft-spoken superstar in both the Reagan and elder-Bush administrations. His appraisal of the current situation reflects his powerful knack for sizing up, clarifying and condensing the complexities of government, while avoiding partisan filters, a … Continue reading
Posted in White Papers
Tagged Budget Deficits, GDP, Reserve Currency, US Dollar, US Treasury
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Getting Down to Business of Federal Debt and Deficits
Consensus: present course is unsustainable Does debt matter? There is no shortage of business press and TV coverage about US government and the individuals who hold “power” in it. But, what power is that? Elected politicians do, and always did understand that they simply have no power, means, or tools to create productive jobs. But political speech making, egged on by a cable TV world that needs ongoing themes to feed its 24/7 yack-format had framed the 2010 general election to be all about jobs, jobs, jobs. Voters went to the polls in unusually large numbers and collectively, more or … Continue reading
Posted in White Papers
Tagged Budget Deficits, Federal Debt, Jobs, Money Printing, US Treasury
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The CPI: Widespread Misuse and Consequences
Unless you have closed your ears to radio and TV commentators for the past six months, you are aware that most of them are pooh-pooing the likelihood of US inflation anytime soon, notwithstanding the dramatic rise in the price of gold, copper and famous-painter art, to name a few channels in which the Big Money Players typically hedge against inflation. Commentators typically point to unemployment above 10%, plus a larger number of under-employeds, topped by a housing market with huge inventories and banks that won’t lend out their TARP money. All of that, they say, will force the Federal Reserve … Continue reading
Financing the Past with Future Dollars
Strong Dollar Policy One hallmark of all US Treasury Secretaries in the 21st Century has been their public claims to unflagging support for “a strong dollar policy”; this, in contrast to the fact that each of their tenures oversaw, and is overseeing new record levels of deficits, relative to overall US economic activity. The process has resembled images of the Global Warming Movement’s “poster-glacier”, shearing off massive chunks of ice into the ocean. In brief, what has long been the world’s greatest economy has recently been steaming ahead with an open vein…. Its currency has long been the only world-class … Continue reading
The Fed’s Massive Money-Printing Enterprise
So, where’s the sleight of hand? The Fed’s massive money-printing enterprise, of course means that there are significantly more US dollars in existence today than a year ago. We and others conclude that the Fed’s money-pump is laying a warm, fuzzy bed for future price-inflation, through de-valuation of the dollar, versus currencies of countries, mostly Asian, whose central banks are not manufacturing money. [Money is a commodity; its value is established by forces of supply and demand; an over-supply of dollars will naturally push up the price of things valued in dollars.] ‘Not so fast’, says the Fed The simple … Continue reading
Posted in White Papers
Tagged Ben Bernanke, Budget Deficits, Money Printing, The FED, US Treasury
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This Time it is Different
The 1930s credit conditions sound annoyingly familiar today, but this time they’re global. The Fed’s activity level is now remarkably dissimilar to the Depression era. This time around, the US Treasury is taking a hyper-active leading role. Its actions have produced loud voices of protest from the public and a significant portion of the Congress, mostly based on the notion that a surviving America with government-owned banking, securities and insurance industries and maybe more is not the America they want to live in, or hand over to the next generation. One important market similarity existed between (a) the period before … Continue reading
Posted in White Papers
Tagged Hedge Funds, Money Printing, The FED, Uptick Rule, US Treasury
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