Did the Fed Create Cash or Debt with QE?


Fed Excess Reserves

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; some people say you are wrong because the Fed did not create “cash,” but rather made more debt available through the QE process and whether people hoard money is irrelevant. I do not agree with this statement for the Fed clearly bought bonds, they did not create debt. It seems some people have completely got this all confused. Can you clarify this.

Thanks

ANSWER: This is a very strange question. I really do not know how in the world someone can say the Fed did not create cash but debt. The entire theory of QE was to increase the money supply in circulation by purchasing government bonds. That would then inject cash into the system since the Fed does not and cannot create debt for it has no such borrowing authority. If they are saying that the debt still increased because Congress always spends more each year, that is irrelevant and cannot be attributed to the Fed creating debt. Then to say hoarding does not take place or is irrelevant is just unbelievable. I do not understand the reasoning.

ElasticThe Feb bought in government bonds. The banks sold their bond holdings to the Fed and then complained they would have no place to park their cash. They lobbied the Fed to pay 0.25% interest on excess cash parked at the Fed beyond their required reserves. The Fed accommodated the banks defeating the entire theory of QE which is in part why it did not create inflation; the banks never lent the money out parking (hoarding) it at the Fed instead.  Here is a chart of the Fed’s facility they created to satisfy the banks.  It stands at about $2.4 trillion. The banks HOARDED the cash injected by the Fed and did not lend it out. The Fed has the power to create money known as the elastic money supply, but it does not create debt. There were no excess reserves before QE. Instead of stimulating the economy, the banks themselves have hoarded the cash and not lent it into the economy.

Then corporations also HOARDED cash to such a point they have engaged in a massive buy-backs of their shares. This too is counter-trend to the entire idea of “stimulus.” Corporations reducing shares and handing back cash is deflationary reducing assets.

Now let’s mix into this madness Europe. Why is Draghai unable to create inflation in Europe with his outrageous QE program and negative interest rates? The answer is very simple. There is no real confidence in Europe to borrow money to start any business. So what are the banks doing there? They are shipping money over to their US branch which must be part of the Fed system and as such they then park the money at the Fed and collect 0.25%. When rates are negative, they have a great spread and no risk. This is not me making up stuff or speculating. I have spoken with banks in Europe directly.

So normally I would not bother to answer such a frivolous question. This should be as simple as black and white. This is exactly what Bill Gross is hoping for that the Fed will once again exchange bonds for cash and thus place a bid underneath the market that will support bonds. There are disagreements behind the curtain and it is not entirely certain the Fed would attempt something they themselves now realize failed. They just lucked out that the US economy is in far better shape than Europe. This is why Yellen met at the White House and has kept saying that interest rates have to be normalized. The central banks are trapped. When the economy turns down starting next year more aggressively, she knows that creating more “helicopter money” by this QE program will not work. The very first thing she MUST do is shut down the excessive reserve facility allowing worldwide banks parking money at the Fed. Only doing that will the banks be force to actually “stimulate” by lending money to real live people to create something. That seems to not be old-school.

Thanks to Goldman Sachs, you took an investment bank and allowed it to change the entire banking system from Relationship Banking transforming it into Transactional Banks. So now, normal banks think the way to do business is not to lend to real live people, but lend the money and then resell it to someone else. They have altered the face of banking forever. (I also sat on the board of a bank 30 years ago when large loans would be presented to the board and that was our decision to lend or not to that customer. Those days are gone).

Why the Quantity of Money Theory is DEAD Wrong


Money Theory

COMMENT: Bill Gross says you are wrong and helicopter money is coming and the Fed should print trillions to buy government bonds. Any comments?

REPLY:Gross is not making a forecast without self-interest. Gross’ “helicopter money” calls for the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury to engage in another round of quantitative easing (QE) by printing trillions of dollars to buy government bonds. This is his Hail Mary play intended to boost the economy. How will that stimulate the economy? He runs Janus’ bond fund. It will only bail him out of losses on bonds.

Printing money to create “stimulation” is a fallacy. It has never worked. The theory of the quantity of money increasing or decreasing is pure nonsense. This typical one-dimensional thought process is incapable of understanding complexity.

Fed Velocity of Money May 1 2016

LongBranchNJ-DepressionScrip

The missing element is the velocity of money. If people hoard money without spending, then increasing the quantity of money will fail to produce inflation. Creating inflation, such as what Japan saw one month before raising the sales tax, demands that people see the price of goods rising so they spend the money faster because they fear it will cost them more tomorrow. Why did Roosevelt confiscate gold and devalue the dollar? People were hoarding money. There was such a shortage of money, more than 200 cities began to issue their own money known today as Depression Scrip.

This idea of “helicopter money” is rather pathetic and fails to dive deep into how the economy functions. Irrespective of the quantity of money, the velocity of money is what always distinguishes deflation from inflation. You could increase the money supply and nothing would happen. Alternatively, you could leave the money supply unchanged and people would suddenly lose confidence in government, causing the velocity to increase thereby producing inflation. This is not an opinion. This is the simple evidence that emerges from correlating everything. Above is the Fed’s latest chart on the Velocity of Money. It peaked with the Economic Confidence Model high in 1998. Despite the increase in money supply, the velocity has been declining. First, we have see pervasive tax increases reducing the disposable income so people have less to spend as government consumes everything. Then, you have price deflation thanks to the internet. Countless stores have closed because they cannot compete with the internet. That reduces jobs and we have over 60% of the people graduating college cannot find jobs in the field they obtained a degree. Bernie’s idea that education should be free will be a disaster for it will will only subsidize a system which is failing to begin with. What the Clinton’s did to students should be reversed that they should be allowed to declare bankruptcy on student loans. We have to undo this mess created by subsidizing education that is pointless.

Trapped
Clearly, you are trapped in your one-dimensional world within this theory of the quantity of money. There is more to everything than this simplistic reduction of how the world functions to a single cause and effect. You have good days and bad days, but are they always due to the same exact cause? All this talk about “helicopter money” means nothing. Inflation only emerges when people DO NOT HOARD cash and spent it faster because they fear it will buy less tomorrow. There is ZERO evidence that has emerged with QE at any stage. It is pure sophistry.

Welcome to the world of complexity. It takes just a bit more thought and unbiased investigation to see how things really work.

We became the largest global advisory firm for one reason. A Swiss banker explained it to me. He said everyone used us because we did not care if the dollar went up or down. I am a trader. I can make money in either direction. I refused money management roles of equities funds when I would be barred from flipping everything into a short. Long-only positions were stupid and dangerous to me. So stop trying to prove me wrong and take a fresh look at the evidence. If you do, you might learn something that saves your family’s future. It’s your choice. There is just more to this game than one cause and effect. It’s called complexity.

13 year old Children going to Jail for Possessing a Counterfeit Note in School


$2 bills

Houston police call the police and accuse little girl trying to buy her lunch with a $2 bill. The government teacher assumed it was counterfeit because she never heard of a $2 bill. The police big an investigation going to her mother who then said she was given it in chance at a store. The police then go to the store to investigate who gave them a $2 bill. All this wasted time because the government employees involved never heard of a $2 bill.

It turns out, the police routinely are called in an prosecute children who may be passing a counterfeit as if they were the person counterfeiting the note. If the police can charge a children with a fake note as being a forger, they face 10 years in prison. A seventh grade student was arrested for merely possessing a counterfeit $10 bill.  He was put in handcuffs, thrown into a squad-car, the hole 9 yards. He was charged with a felony and then sent to an alternative school before he was given a fair hearing and found guilty of anything.

British Protest Note

 

British Protest Note EnlargementFrom 1697 until 1832, the act of forgery or even the use of forged notes was punishable by DEATH. This satirical note was designed by 17th century cartoonist George Cruikshank in protest to the rising number of pretend forgers who were sentenced to death and hanged. Standard features of the Bank of England notes are replaced by gruesome ornaments such as skulls, a hangman’s noose, with ships for transportation to British colonial prisons in Australia.This surrounds the image of Britannia feeding on infants.

The crime was mere possession. If you accepted a note and did not know it was counterfeit, it was a death sentence. In Texas, police are charging children with felonies for the same mere possession of a counterfeit note.

The practice of hanging so many people finally led the Bank of England to offer the convicted the option of a “plea bargain” in the form of a guilty plea by a prisoner. So to avoid death, people would plead to a crime they did not commit, the same practice as today with 98% of cases involving plea deals. In this case, you took the deal and received a sentence to 14 years “transportation,” meaning the prisoner would be exiled to British colony prisons in America or later Australia. These were the first “slaves” bought by American plantation owners. It was forbidden in the US constitution as indentured servitude. Therefore, history repeats because the abuse of government never changes. Today, even the possession of a wad of cash is presumed to be guilty and subject to confiscation.

The Absence of Randomness = Hidden Order


DNA

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I found your comments and observation that there is nothing which acts in a pure state of randomness. Do you believe absolutely everything is predetermine?

Bulls-BearsANSWER: Even now, investigations into DNA will tell you what your traits are and what disease you will develop. Everything is determined by a predetermination which is coded within the fabric of the Universe. Nothing can be purely random. If that were the case, then what is there to stop our planet from suddenly revolving around Jupiter? We confuse events by focusing on the actors. The press attributes so much to Trump, but fail to understand that the people are selecting Trump and Bernie not because of them personally, but because they are angry at the system. As long as others and the press personalize things and try to attack Trump for something he has said, they completely miss the point.
I have explained that markets rise and fall. This is the mechanism by which everything functions. When one side becomes dominant, it provides the fuel to the opposite direction exactly following the same movement of a pendulum. They will demand it is a manipulation of some sort and there have been investigations since the Panic of 1907 which all began on the that same notion. They have never found that mythical short position even once. It is not pure randomness. It can be observed, studied, and replicated, If I am correct, then this disturbs government, How can a politician run for office promising change when they cannot change anything that alters the trend? The absence of total randomness = hidden order waiting to be discovered,

800 Leaked Pages From TTIP Trade Deal Might Doom Treaties Prospects…


Any trade agreement is by definition anti- free trade. The true definition of free Trade is transaction between parties where there is zero influence by anyone else. Pegged exchange rates and monetary policy and the IMF and ANY government based agreement regarding the movement of goods and services between counties is by definition something that prevents free trade. If we really wanted free trade the best way would be to ban the sale of treasury bonds of any kind to anyone not a US citizen or a US based corporation; to band the transfer of any such instruments to anyone not entitled to buy them directly from the Treasury. This action would force currency exchange rates to move more in line with free market principles. I would also make it harder for the federal government to finance debt but that would be a very good thing.

The Pension Crisis is Starting


Negative Interest Rates

The pension crisis set in motion by negative interest rates will be a major issue in the years ahead. Central banks have really screwed the entire social system and now everyone’s future is at risk. You cannot maintain negative to exceptionally low interest rates to help the bankers and claim it will ignite inflation and reverse the economy when you are wiping out the disposable income of the elderly. The elderly used to be the foundation of the economy for they always would spend when others feared to do so because they did not have to worry about future income.

Keeping interest rates this low is insane. Interest is the cost of money and takes into account the future expectation of inflation. The central bankers cannot inflate the economy when people simply hoard cash in fear of what lies ahead. This is why Trump and Sanders have done so well.

State pension funds, such as in Illinois, are bankrupting governments. One of the first lawsuits was filed by a private group alleging that their pension fund is underfunded and mismanaged as a result. Creating pension funds and then assuming the duty to manage them by a company is a lethal combination with negative interest rates. This will become a major crisis come next year. Trump better pray Hillary wins. The people will probably begin a revolution against her since she is owned by Goldman Sachs.

Candidate Trump’s “America First” Economic Solutions…


This is a well thought out post and right one! I have a degree in economics received prior to the shift that embraced John Maynard Keynes’s view on economics as presented in his Book “The General Theory.” In general this view which every school now teaches is that Government can control the economy though monetary policy and regulation. This shift to service from manufacturing which Sundance talks about was just starting to be taught in the early 60’s when I was in school and since it had not been fully adopted and since I had the pleasure of reading to works of Milton Friedman who back then had already broken from the Keynesian view I was not corrupted by the government centric view. My military career and business career after college allowed me to experience the real world and also experience the full effect of the policy’s that moved so much of American might out of the country. Being retired now I write on how insane this view is and so I instantly became a Trump fan within days of his announcement. This is no place for a full debate on the merits or demerits of a service based economy but I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that this concept is fundamentally flawed and is at the very core of the problems that we now have. There is no doubt that Trump has it right my only fear is that we elected him too late to stop the train wreck.

Is Saudi Arabia on the Ropes?


Obama Saudi

There is serious trouble brewing in Saudi Arabia. They have been dumping oil increasing their output by 3.5%. However, the cash is being kept offshore. Rumors have been flight that members of the Royal family may be creating a stash just in case there is major civil unrest which forces them to flee into exile. Obama on his recent trip told the Saudis they should adopt democratic reform. Make no mistake about it. There is trouble brewing in the Middle East. There is no way Obama would have made such a statement publicly if the situation were not grave.

May – August – October are being highlighted as key periods ahead.

SAUDIA-M SAUDIA-FOR-M

Confused Confidence


confused

QUESTION:

Hi Marty!

I am reading and studying your blogs and Socrates for quite some time and I would really like to thank you for all the insights!

Some days I listen to bloomberg radio for knowing what ‘they’ are saying about the market developments. As I am not an experienced trader as you are, I must admit I don’t understand the ‘collective market behaviours’ e.g. besides all the traps the central banks got themselves into, my normal logical mind tells me that whenever interest rates rise, money gets more expensive, so consequently the only true reason for doing so would be that underlying economic data shows the economy is doing well and can do without ‘help’.

A simple mind like I am tells me that a stock index should rise in case of a well doing economy. Instead I only hear markets fear a interest rate hike. Seems to me that the collective wants interest rates remain low, so stockindex growth driven higher by debt.

The same for example in the case of oil. With my simple mind global economies aren’t as healthy as the financial markets might imply. So in short lower demand and risk of even demand lowering. Instead of a lower price eg. crude oil futures, the futures contract keeps on rising. I am wondering what the fundamentals are that drive up these prices?

Could you give some insights on the real fundamentals that drive markets as from a real- economic perspective I can’t figure it out!

Thnx Marty!

R

Confidence-wide

ANSWER: The fundamentals flipped after the shift from a private to public wave following 1929. Under the pre-1929 economics of laissez-faire, the government did not attempt to manipulate society with monetary policy. They attempted to lower U.S. interest rates to deflect capital inflows back to Europe, but they did not practice manipulating interest rates domestically to try to manage the economy. Therefore, raising interest rates before 1929 was often seen as bullish because it showed there was a demand for borrowing money due to economic expansion.

Today, the fundamentals are interpreted through the eyes of Marxism. Raising interest rates is now considered a punishment to society intended to deter them from borrowing. Yet, deflation involves declining interest rates due to the lack of interest to borrow. Some say that higher rates are bad for stocks, but they are solely looking at it as a punitive measure that will cost people more to borrow. You even have people cheering gold with lower interest rates.

None of this makes any sense economically. Nonetheless, we are looking at a sharp rise in stocks and gold along with rising interest rates, which will confuse everyone. Interest rates are the manifestation of expected inflation. If you think inflation will be 10%, you will lose money if you lend it at 5%. Interest rates are the price of expected inflation alongside the perceived risk.

Therefore, everything will take off to the upside and the majority, whom will be following the Marxist version of fundamentals, will feed the rally because they will be short. This view of fundamentals will eventually flip back, but only when the public at large sees this flip and goes with it. That is the point of no return where confidence in government collapses.

ECM-1970-2084 - R

Why ReportI should point out that these fundamentals tend to apply only to the investing class. I remember 1981 when interest rates reached their peak. My mother and her sister went out and bought bank CDs at 20% for 10 years. They did not ask me. They made the decision on their own and said they would never see that much interest again. They are countless others changes the trend and made that peak in the Public Wave 1981.35. This class of people act out of common sense and do not listen to the fundamentals applied in the investing class. This is the real group of people who are the movers & shakers. The rest of us are trying to figure out what they are doing. Keep in mind that within the investing class, they always try to assign some fundamental to explain something. Everyone wants to know WHY. I named by debut report on the ECM back in 1979 – “WHY”.

German 1918 Revolution

German Hyperinflation WheelborrowTake gold for example. How long have they been saying the dollar is fiat yet gold has not advanced to the same degree as the Dow since 1970. It is one of those fundamentals they always throw at you which become sophistry. Sounds logical and they mix in Germany with wheelbarrows of money, but omit the fact it was a Communist Revolution in 1918 where Germany invited Russia to come take their country wanting to join the Russian Revolution of 1917. Who would keep money in a bank under such conditions?  There was a collapse in confidence.

Asset Recycling – Robbing Pensions to Cover Government Costs


Pension-Crisis

Part of the Pension Crisis we face thanks to negative interest rates destroying pension funds, then we have a temping pot of money government just cannot keep its hands out of. Governments are turning to “asset recycling” which includes even Canada. The federal government of Canada, for example, is looking at a potential source of cash they can rob to reduce the cost of government by shifting Canada’s mounting infrastructure costs to the private sector. They want to sell or lease stakes in major public assets such as highways, rail lines, and ports. In Canada, they sneaked in a line hidden in last month’s federal budget which reveals the Liberals are considering making public assets available to non-government investors, like public pension funds. They will sell the national infrastructure to pension funds robbing them of the cash they have to fund themselves. This latest trick is being called “asset recycling,” which is a system designed to raise money for governments. This idea is surfacing in Europe as well as the United States especially among strapped cash States.

The Other Side

3d_text_perspective_10915This is the other side of 2015.75 which was the peak in government (socialism). Everything from that point forward is a confirmation that these people are in crisis mode. They are rapidly destroying Western Culture because they are simply crazy and they people who vote for them blindly are out of their minds. They are destroying the very fabric of society for they cannot see what they are doing nor where this all leads. Once the wipe out the security of the future, this is how government crumble to dust to be swept away by history. We deserve what we blindly vote for.