Individual Responsibility

Freedom, Liberty, Capitalism are now loaded terms that are mis-interpreted all the time. Perhaps this is less confusing. What we shall strive for is : Individual responsibility and the rewards that come with it.

Gold at $1400 an ounce

AngloGold, the worlds 3rd largest gold producer,  reported today that it re-purchased the gold that it had sold as a hedge on the futures market. That repurchase was completed October 7 at a cost of  2.64 billion Dollars and an average price of $1300 an ounce.

No-one is bigger than the market...

not even the Fed. It just announced that they will purchase 105 billion Dollar worth of Treasury securities in the next 30 days and that they will continue buying for the next 6 months.
My prediction is that interest rates will rise anyway.

Just a few observations.....

on the results of your current policy, Ben. You once promised aerial vehicles spreading cash amongst the populace to combat a recurrence of a depression. We are now more than 2 years into this mess and it would appear you have lost your way.
Sure, you have printed a lot of money and you continue to give unlimited amounts away at no interest - but who are the beneficiaries ?

1. Of course, the government. You are buying as much debt as it can issue with your freshly printed dough.
2. Banks: They get money for nothing from you and lend it to "safe" creditors (like governments) at record low rates. (but still make money)
3. Big corporations with access to the capital markets. They can issue just about any amount of debt at rates only slightly higher than the government. Also, they can issue stock, which of course does not obligate them to any payment at all. Further, since the cost of their capital is next to nothing, they are not feeling any pressure to invest. They're just waiting for some great opportunity to fall into their lap.
4. People who are short the Dollar. Your money printing has not gone unnoticed and the price of the Dollar is hovering at all-time-lows.

So you have been wondering why your heroic measures have not yielded any good results for the masses ?

Let's look at who is hurt:

1. Savers and retirees: they now get ZERO return on their money and are forced to gamble, buying overpriced assets if they want to have a chance at making any money at all.
2. Most everyone: We are not getting any credit. If we still have good credit, just the act of taking out a little bit hurts our credit scores tremendously. Oh, and if we take any credit, the rates are amazing. As you are giving free money to banks, consumer loan rates are going UP.
In my brokerage margin account for example, I get ZERO on my cash balances, yet if I borrow to buy stocks, I'm charged 8%-10%.  Of course you know that these loans are callable daily and are the most secure loans any financial institution can make !
3. Workers continue to be hurt as they continue to have no jobs.
4. Anyone who holds Dollars, as every Dollar you print directly diminishes the value of every Dollar already in existence.
5. Pension funds and insurance companies are not earning any money on their reserves and have to take higher risks. Result: rate increases and likely defaults in the future.

Gold is not an investment

Ads are popping up everywhere promising large returns from "investing" in gold. That is very confusing, since gold is not an investment (or a collectible - like the IRS treats it).
Gold is cash. Cash is not an investment, but a refuge that one seeks when there are no viable investments available or the outlook is too murky to make any sense of it.

Money is Credit

That's a fine monetary system, where one has money as long as his credit is good. Not good for the people who don't have credit, cause they don't get much, but have the little money that they own devalued by inflation.
What happens when the system breaks, like now ?
The ones without credit get shafted again, cause now they lose everything - including their jobs.
Why and to who's benefit was the Fed created in 1913 ?