8.07.2010

Barron's: Time to Print, Print, Print

Yes, that's actually the title, and this is actually the illustration, for this article ($) by serious columnist Jonathan R. Laing making a serious policy prescription in a serious financial newspaper.



Barron's makes the common mistake that stuffing the banks with more free money will somehow cause more lending to consumers who don't want and can't handle more debt, and that this lending would be a good thing. Au contraire. More debt is the last thing we need. As I've said before, printing money to buy Treasuries will cause asset bubbles, not wage inflation, in a 10% unemployment / 20% underemployment environment. How will consumers benefit if the cost of food and gas doubles but they still have no jobs?

Easy-money asset bubbles worsen the "wealth gap" by enriching asset owners (shareholders, real estate speculators, gold hoarders, vampire squid) while impoverishing the paycheck-to-paycheck working stiff.

Laing has it partially right. Devaluation is the only way out. But we've got to get the newly printed money directly to the people of America, not circuitously through more debt from the dirty banksters.

Regardless, the prime takeaway is that QE2 is coming:
Signs of a sea change in attitudes toward quantitative easing are growing, even in unusual quarters. Last month, the European Central Bank quietly invited Vincent Reinhart, a powerful figure in the Greespan Fed as director of the Division of Monetary Affairs from 2001 to 2007, to conduct a seminar on quantitative easing for its top staffers. That was momentous, given the institution's history as a bastion of monetary conservatism and rectitude.

'cause, you know, Greenspan's easy money worked out so great for everybody!

Shall we play a game?

Love to. Let's play Global Competitive Devaluation.

Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?

Later. Let's play Global Competitive Devaluation.

Fine.


Get thee to a gold dealer, my friend.

3 comments:

FrackWit said...

Bubble Ben probably creamed his pants when he saw this article as he thought it gave his lunacy of infinite free money for his TBTF bankster buddies some form of credibility.

Captain Copter's cred isn't up, but Barron's cred certainly is down.

Anonymous said...

"Laing has it partially right. Devaluation is the only way out. But we've got to get the newly printed money directly to the people of America, not circuitously through more debt from the dirty banksters."

So your solution is also "print print print"? What a hypocrite.

I applaud Barron's for the courage to print this excellent article. I applaud George Bush, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geither and Barack Obama for the courage to save our banking system and economy for collapse.

What needs to happen now is the government to print trillions of dollars and send them in the mail to every person in America until the inflation rate hits 3%.

W.C. Varones said...

Spoken like a true member of the ruling class, Anonymous.

I notice that you're commenting from Washington D.C.

Congratulations on your cushy job and fat pension, you jackass, while the people who pay your salary are experiencing a depression thanks to incompetence and corruption from you leeches in Congress, Treasury, and the Fed.

Happy Super Tuesday!