Fed up: An insiders expose of the toxic culture within the Federal Reserve

Available in February this new book is a must read.  Misguided thinking and policies have caused so much harm.  There can be no recovery, unless we admit, repent and reform our banking system.

Fed up book coverAn insider’s unflinching expose of the toxic culture within the Federal Reserve.
 
In the early 2000s, as a Wall Street escapee writing a financial column for the Dallas Morning News. Booth attracted attention for her bold criticism of the Fed’s low interest rate policies and her cautionary warnings about the bubbly housing market. Nobody was more surprised than she when the folks at the Dallas Federal Reserve invited her aboard. Figuring she could have more of an impact on Fed policies from the inside, she accepted the call to duty and rose to be one of Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher’s closest advisors.
 
To her dismay, the culture at the Fed–and its leadership–were not just ignorant of the brewing financial crisis, but indifferent to its very possibility. They interpreted their job of keeping the economy going to mean keeping Wall Street afloat at the expense of the American taxpayer. But bad Fed policy created unaffordable housing, skewed incentives, rampant corporate financial engineering, stagnant wages, an exodus from the labor force, and skyrocketing student debt. Booth observed firsthand how the Fed abdicated its responsibility to the American people both before and after the financial crisis–and how nobody within the Fed seems to have learned or changed from the experience.
 
Today, the Federal Reserve is still controlled by 1,000 PhD economists and run by an unelected West Coast radical with no direct business experience. The Fed continues to enable Congress to grow our nation’s ballooning debt and avoid making hard choices, despite the high psychological and monetary costs. And our addiction to the “heroin” of low interest rates is pushing our economy towards yet another collapse.

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China fault lines in 2017

“China’s balancing act isn’t getting any easier.

Policy makers are grappling with how to attack excessive borrowing and rein in soaring property prices while maintaining rapid growth. They’re also battling yuan depreciation and capital outflow pressures as U.S. interest rates rise, while on the horizon looms the risk of confrontation with America’s President-elect Donald Trump on trade…”

See China Fault Lines: where economic turbulence could erupt in 2017.  Here is a direct video link.

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Supremely confident US leader and markets usher in 2017 on high hopes

The ‘Trumplosion’ in US stocks since the US election has been truly death-defying, with equity valuations now pushed to the most extreme, dangerous and historically fleeting levels ever (see pink areas below since 1900).
Historic valuations chart

The party has only been in North America though–led by Trump-friendly expectations for financials and energy.  We should note that what’s great for oil and financial profits are generally at the expense of everything else–both sectors are taxes on growth, not drivers of it.  Meanwhile, other key global stock markets have all declined since November 8 (chart).

US stocks advance alone since election

Of course, during the holidays, less participants mean rapid-fire trading algos have greater price effect than usual.  And as shown here, the daily volume of transactions since November has been low as usual.

holiday volume

Starting with record and rising debt, still-crisis low interest rates and slow growth, cyclical lows in unemployment along with cyclical highs in investor confidence and asset valuations,  2017 is coming in on great expectations.–to say the least.  When Obama took office in 2009, the consensus feared the world might be ending.  Today with ‘The Donald’ supremely confident in his own powers and ability as business leader of the free world, what could possibly go wrong?

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