June 12, 2014

ZIRP Gains More Attention

We all feel the effects of ZIRP - Zero Interest Rate Policy. Who put their money in the bank savings accounts anymore?

From Seeking Alpha

ZIRP Gains More Attention

Gary Tanashian | Jun. 12, 2014

Summary

  • Mainstream economist highlights what we have been saying for well over a year.
  • That is that ZIRP is destructive, not constructive.
  • The "bubble" has been in policy.

We have been talking about how there had been no bubble in US stocks and how the economy is doing just fine. We have also been talking about how the bubble is in policy and that the economy and stock bull market have been created - yes, like Frankenstein's monster once again - out of this policy bubble.

Enter economist Joseph LaVorgna of Deutsche Bank… Fed needs to start raising rates, top forecaster says.

Will wonders never cease? As you may know, I read the financial MSM to get a feel for what the casual market participant is reading, what the majority is being told is the truth. Usually it is some combo of self-promoters and agenda (sometimes political) driven bulls and bears.

       "The economy is improving much faster than the Fed is willing to acknowledge, LaVorgna said in                   an interview. At the current rate of hiring, more jobs will be created this year than in any year since                 1999."

Exactly, and still they inflate. He correctly puts the focus on the financial (and national) disgrace called ZIRP as opposed to the theater surrounding QE's long-term bond purchases.

       "In six months, the unemployment rate will be below 6% and the core inflation rate will be at 2%," he             said. "We are way ahead of schedule. We're going to get to 5.2% or 5.4% a year ahead of schedule."

       "The Fed is behind the proverbial curve," he said. "The Fed should be raising rates."

It's all that this corner of the interwebs has been hammering on for over a year now. If the economy is at all real, get rid of QE and end ZIRP.

       "I would have raised rates years ago," just enough to get the federal funds rate off zero after the                     emergency passed, he added. He argued that ultra-low rates may not be doing anything positive for the         economy, anyway. "It's not about the cost of money; it's about the provision of credit," he said.

It is about that provision (or better yet, attempted force feeding) and to this credit, which goes right into the pockets of asset owners there is also a debit, right out of the pockets of the dying breed that used to be a majority, savers. You know who savers used to be, right? They would be the ones who used to deploy capital at appropriate times, investing in opportunities provided by the economy's natural up and down cycles.

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