Who am I to say that Ben Bernanke is wrong? After all, Bernanke went to Harvard and graduated with honors and his economics PHD from MIT. Then of course he has all of the political appointments and now is the Federal Reserve Chairman. There was someone else who had a list a mile long of credentials. In fact, he was the former Federal Reserve Chairman – Alan Greenspan. It is documented with a list a mile long of critical mistakes that were made in his part in blowing up one of the greatest debt bubbles of all time.
So, don’t let the credentials fool you. In short, Ben Bernanke wants to save the planet by purchasing billions of dollars of US Treasuries or said in another way, lend billions of dollars to the US to keep US debt a float. Buying a Us Treasury Bond is the equivalent of lending money to the United States. His logic? The Fed buys billions of dollars of US Treasuries, then mortgage rates will go down and interest rates on loans will do down further encouraging businesses and consumers to borrow and spend. This in turn might invigorate the economy and ease unemployment.
Let’s take a look at the main reason why this is a dangerous bet. I have many more. The problem is limited space.
Have you ever seen a kid blow a bubble as big as it will go? The child keeps blowing and blowing and the bubble gets bigger and bigger. The eyes of the child show the disbelief that the bubble hasn’t popped yet as more air is forced into the gum. Our bond market is one big juicy fruit bubble already. Let’s blow some more air into that bubble and see what happens.
By pouring billions of dollars into Tresuary bonds, prices of bonds (in theory) will continue to go up and interest rates fall. Common sense will tell you that prices of bonds are going up for no good reason. Thus they turn into the equivalent of worthless internet stocks that went up in price based on nothing material. This has the makings of a massive bubble. Riddle me this – what happens when that bubble bursts? Interest rates sky rocket. Isn’t that what he is trying to prevent in the first place?
There is also the notion that people are going to spend, spend, and spend because of low rates. If that were the case, people and companies would have already been doing it. Let’s face it, you need confidence to borrow money. I will just say two words why that isn’t going to happen – OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.
Further, how did that first round of 100′s of billions of dollars do for us? I don’t think that I need to answer that question.
