This morning the U.S. government reported a better than expected non-farm payroll report. The economy gained 151,000 jobs according to the headline number. Economists has expected a gain of just 60,000 jobs. This headline number looks like a blockbuster on the surface, however, an argument can be made that the math behind these numbers is a bit fuzzy. Birth/Death added 61,000 jobs alone. What else would one expect from a government report?
This week the Federal Reserve announced a $600 billion dollar quantitative easing(money printing) plan. This move by the Federal Reserve has rallied the stock markets higher by 13.0 percent since it was announced in late August. When you consider that the Federal Reserve is doing QE-2 plus their permanent open market operations(POMO) this comes to about $120 billion of added stimulus in the economy each month. If things were so great in the economy one would think that the Federal Reserve would take off the training wheels and see if the economy could function on pure supply and demand, however, that is not the case at this time. Oh, I forgot they did that in May and we saw what happened as the stock market crashed on May 6th, 2010. Therefore, these bankers just continue to pump up the liquidity as commodities and markets inflate to the moon.
Yesterday there were new highs made in gold, silver, copper, cotton, oil, gasoline, and most every other commodity. However, this is being viewed as a positive. Now we must realize that food and energy are excluded from the economic reports that are used by the Federal Reserve. However, cotton is not a food or energy product and it has increased by over 80.0 percent since mid-July. Are these guys joking or what? This is massive inflation that a third grader can understand. Yet the guys with Ph D's, and the MB A's just don't understand this. Oil is now trading over $86.00 a barrel now. What price will crude break the U.S. consumer again? It certainly happened in 2008 and it will happen again. These are the same people that said there was not a sub-prime crisis or a housing bubble. Yet they get even more power after a stock market collapse. We have our corrupt politicians to thank for that.
Meanwhile, the large banks are able to borrow money at zero percent from the Federal Reserve. Therefore, the banks can buy U.S. Treasuries and make a 4.00 percent return. They can continue to operate a credit card business where the average interest rate is 16.75 percent. They can also use the U.S. Dollar carry trade to invest the free money that borrow from the Federal Reserve to buy bonds abroad that pay higher interest. And you thought the TARP program was over. The banks get to do all of this to make money while they barely pay any interest to anyone with a savings account or a CD. This is the slap in the face to the American people. Thats what we get for bailing out these institutions instead of letting them fail like a capitalist society would have .
If we have learned one lesson from the past three years it is simply that the economy is just doing more of the same that got us in this mess in the first place. Bailouts and cheap money from the central banks should lead to the 'mother of all bubbles' once the next one develops and pops. If you don't believe me just look at the price of gold. Gold is the only commodity that is really in demand unlike everything else that is being propped up by a weak U.S. Dollar Index. Gold is the one true currency from the beginning of time and it will be until the end of time. However, gold gets taxed as a collectible which is the highest rate around 36 percent. Are you kidding me? Unfortunately, I'm not sure when supply and demand will drive anything in this market as long as it is being artificially propped up.
