Tomorrow afternoon [Wednesday, Jan 25] at 12:30PM est, the great and all powerful Oz will speak...
O wait a minute... I meant to say that the US Federal Reserve will step forth from behind their curtain and blow smoke up our ass.
Opps...
Tomorrow the US Federal Reserve, at the conclusion of their two-day meeting, are expected by countless financial market talking heads to announce QE3 [Quantitative Easing - Round Three]. The headlines of the past couple weeks say it will be so:
"The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth."
O wait a minute... I meant to say that the US Federal Reserve will step forth from behind their curtain and blow smoke up our ass.
Opps...
Tomorrow the US Federal Reserve, at the conclusion of their two-day meeting, are expected by countless financial market talking heads to announce QE3 [Quantitative Easing - Round Three]. The headlines of the past couple weeks say it will be so:
The Fed Heads certainly "want you to believe" that they are going to ride to the rescue of the economy with more money:
Stocks have been rising since the first of the year in anticipation of a new round of Federal Reserve stimulus for the economy. Commodities have been rising for no "fundamental reason" since the first of the year...in anticipation of the inflationary impact of new Federal Reserve stimulus. The US Dollar has stopped rising on the belief that a new round of Quantitative Easing will debase the currency further, and launch the American economy into a hyperinflation. Gold and Silver have "risen from the ashes" as every assurance has been given by the financial news media that QE3 will be announced by the Bumbling Bernanke & Co. Wednesday afternoon.
BUT WHAT IF THERE IS NO QE3 ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE FED?
By Graham Summers, via ZeroHedge
I continue to see commentators
claiming QE 3 is just around the corner. I don’t see how this is possible
because all of the Fed’s excuses for more QE are no longer valid.
First off, interest rates are
already at or near record lows. So the Fed cannot argue that it needs to lower
rates. Moreover, it’s not like lowering rates via QE 1, QE lite, QE 2, and
Operation Twist 2 did much to help the US housing market. So QE 3 can’t be
presented as a solution to housing.
Secondly, the economic data coming
out of the US has been massaged to the point of not looking so bad. So the Fed
cannot use the “economy is collapsing” argument this time either. And it’s not
as though the public isn’t totally aware that QE 2 did next to nothing for the
economy.
Indeed, the Fed spent $600 billion
on QE 2 and had at most three
months’ of improved economic data as a result (QE 2 was announced in November
and the US economy rolled over in February 2011). The public is well aware of
this as well as the fact that QE 2 saw inflation exploding higher.
Despite end-of-year decline, 2011 food
prices highest on record – UN
Global food prices declined
in December, but the overall annual average was the highest ever on record, the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today.
Last month, FAO’s Food
Price Index level was 211 points – 27 points below its peak in February. The
decline was driven by sharp falls in the international prices of cereals, sugar
and oils due to a productive harvest coupled with a slowing demand and a
stronger United States dollar.
However, despite the steady
decline in prices during the second half of the year, the Index overall averaged
228 points in 2011 – the highest average since FAO started measuring
international food prices in 1990. The second highest average occurred in 2008
at 200 points.
Food prices hit all time highs in
2011, resulting in numerous revolutions and riots throughout the world. The
increased cost of living also drew a lot of negative attention to the Fed from
the US populace. So it’s not like the Fed can use the “QE will stimulate the
economy” argument anymore.
The final argument for QE is that
Obama needs the economy to recover to win the 2012 election. This argument
completely overlooks the fact that Bernanke and the Fed are now politically
toxic.
If the Fed were not in trouble
politically, why would it:
1)
Stage town hall meetings
2)
Open up to Q&A sessions
3)
Have “humanizing’ articles written about Bernanke in major
media publications.
4)
Moving towards more transparency on its forecasts and
projections
These are all defensive moves. And
the Fed wouldn’t be making them if it wasn’t under pressure. Which makes it all
the more unlikely that QE 3 would help Obama. The public is already
outraged at the Fed moves. And QE 3 would send inflation through the roof. How exactly would this benefit Obama’s
Presidential campaign?
In the end, the bar for QE 3 is
much, much higher than most people think. The days in which the Fed could do
whatever it wanted are over. And there simply isn’t a decent argument for QE 3
at this time.
It’s not as though QE 3 would do
much for the market anyway. Look at the recent coordinated Central Bank
intervention in November… the benefits lasted less than a month.
And somehow QE 3 is going to send
stocks through the roof? Give me a break. Look at earnings. They’ve been a
disaster, and investors are pulling their funds from the market en masse.
On that note, I truly believe
we’re on the verge of the next round of the Great Crisis. The credit and bond
markets are already starting to predict another 2008 event. Only this time
things will be even worse because the Fed has already used up its tools into
combating the First Round of the Crisis.
___________________________
Things could get really ugly tomorrow if the Fed fails to deliver QE3. Remember what happened after the Fed settled for "Operation Twist" instead of the "anticipated" QE3 last Fall? That wasn't pretty! Silver FELL $14 an ounce in three weeks...Gold fell $250 an ounce in the same three weeks...and the S&P lost 10%!
The Fed doesn't need to "deliver" QE3 tomorrow, they are already engaged in it covertly, behind the scenes. Seriously, who do you think is going to buy the $1.2 TRILLION worth of debt Obama and friends are going to tack on to the "debt ceiling" later this month? Who do you think has been buying US Debt since Operation Twist was announced September 21, 2011?
Don't expect an overt, public QE3 announcement from the Fed Wednesday, and prepare accordingly..look for the opportunity to accumulate more physical Precious Metals at discount prices.
Do expect the Fed to try and jawbone the markets into believing that the Fed is doing something constructive by "targeting inflation", or announcing an "interest rate forecast". Count on the Fed telling us everything but the TRUTH about QE3.
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