Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Fed Abused the System by Printing and Printing

The monetary policies as they are implemented by central banks around the world, are actually preventing the markets to clear and the economy to truly improve. ...And there is wealth inequality to the extent that not the 1 percent but the 0.1 percent become immensely well-to-do because money printing helps the financial asset players and the real estate owners, and the majority becomes poorer.

The Fed has these statistics. They compile them themselves. In the U.S., since 2007 the majority of Americans in terms of wealth are poorer today by 40% than in 2007. But the 0.1% are far wealthier. That is the problem. When the wealth inequality increases at the expense of the majority, then you get Hollande in France who says, ‘If things go bad for you, if you are suffering, it’s all the fault of these rich people that abuse the system.’

The rich did not abuse the system. They behaved in a capitalistic way. The Fed abused the system by printing and printing and printing, and that created this situation where the cost of living of the lower income recipients is going up strongly because of energy costs, transportation costs, healthcare costs and food costs.

But the rich do not suffer because for them food is a tiny portion of their expenditures. It’s nothing compared to the expenditure of the private jet, so they don’t care about that. But if you have a household income of $40,000, and you spend say 30% to 40% on food and energy and transportation every year, it matters whether these prices are going up or not. So for the majority of people life has become harder, whereas for the .01 percent life has become a paradise. But that will change one day in my view.

- Marc Faber via King World News, read more here: