Fed to announce inflation target; set foundation for qe#

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The Federal Reserve could take the historic step this week of announcing an explicit target for inflation, a move that would fulfill a multi-year quest of the central bank's chairman, Ben Bernanke.
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While Bernanke has touted a numerical inflation goal as a cornerstone of central bank best practices for years, the idea has become timely because it could help quell nagging doubts that the Fed's unprecedented easy money policies are setting the stage for a nasty bout of inflation.

The U.S. economy strengthened toward the end of last year, with job growth accelerating and the unemployment rate dropping to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent.

But the recovery is not expected to retain the momentum.

By announcing a target, the Fed could smooth the path to another round of bond buying should the recovery falter.
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More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/22/us-usa-fed-target-idUSTRE80L0NU20120122
 
Jim Rickards says it's gonna be a nominal (= NOT inflation adjusted) GDP target, not inflation itself.
 
QE doesn't do anything to help ordinary Americans. It merely keeps enough cash in the Ponzi scheme to continue for a while longer.
 
ancona said:
QE doesn't do anything to help ordinary Americans. It merely keeps enough cash in the Ponzi scheme to continue for a while longer.
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Exactly! Same thing with the so-called bailouts. In layman terms, it looks like that:

  • Country A pledges to cover Banksters debts, to "rescue the system from collapsing", because otherwise, it would be "Dark Ages all over again the very next day"
  • Terrible move, markets hate it... no one wants to borrow them any money anymore...
  • IMF/ECB steps in... LENDS the money they DO NOT HAVE, thus lending it into existence...
  • Poor bastard Country A, pours billions/trillions of that BORROWED credit into their (inevitably) broken banking system, preventing it from the immediate collapse. Not into their roads, hospitals, police, whatever... Just into insolvent BANKS.
  • of course, once that money is spent on banks, it will not be spent PRODUCTIVELY. And banks, well, they do not lend it further to SMBs, they hold dearly to it. Why should they, if they are spared from having a robust & efficient BUSINESS MODEL, and it is enough to be too big to fail, and collect the monies handed out by stupid governments?
  • because of that, the economy is exactly as fucked up, as it was before the "bailout". With the only difference, that there is a sharp increase in debt, that has to be serviced = increase in taxes and government borrowing. And "austerity measures", which translates to "even less money & services for the people". So, it is actually much more fecked up, than it was before the glorious "manna from heaven"; the Bailout.

This is so fecking stoopid, that it would seem that even a child should be able to grasp that. But not the governments, nor "the people", apparently.
 
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtNinfLrebI]Rickards discusses nominal GDP targeting[/ame] (embedding disabled - click link to watch on YouTube)

He basically says it's a blank QE check. Allows them to enagage QE whenever they feel the need without limits on size or constraints on when it might end.
 
Link in OP still works for me.

The YouTube video apparently has embedding disabled though. You need to click the link to watch it on YouTube.
 
No inflation or GDP target this time, just (at least) one more year of ZIRP until 2014 now...

I'm calling ZIRP4EVA
 
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lol. Saw the graphs at the top of the home page and thought to myself - "I guess the FOMC announcement was released."
 
We need to hold these levels by week's end. If we do.. We target 1900 by april...
 
dereksatkinson said:
We need to hold these levels by week's end. If we do.. We target 1900 by april...
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Opex will be critical, I agree.
The banks need a round number at the biggest open interest on opex, so the targets are 1700, 1675, 1650 and so on for gold and 33, 32.5, 32 etc. for silver.
 
It's great watching him speak and the gold price at the same time...the more he speaks..every ha ha time he does just watch the gold price...shoots up like a rocket!
 
So, it's ZIRP for the next 2 + years... How horrible for savers, no safe and decent income anywhere.

So, no interest income until 2015... And what does THAT have to say about what TPTB think is going to happen to our economy?

I would HAVE to think that a fair amount of money seeking safety is about to chase gold and silver prices up. Way up.

Future historians will write about how dumb we were to allow our economy to be wrecked by QE-to-infinity and deficit spending...
 
DoChenRollingBearing said:
So, it's ZIRP for the next 2 + years... How horrible for savers, no safe and decent income anywhere.

So, no interest income until 2015... And what does THAT have to say about what TPTB think is going to happen to our economy?

I would HAVE to think that a fair amount of money seeking safety is about to chase gold and silver prices up. Way up.

Future historians will write about how dumb we were to allow our economy to be wrecked by QE-to-infinity and deficit spending...
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My grandfather survived the Weimar hyperinflation, my family has passed the stories about this time on from generation to generation. It's stunning to see how history rhymes itself...
 
swissaustrian said:
It's stunning to see how history rhymes itself...
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My high school history teacher used to say: "the only sure lesson that we can learn from the history, is that the history has never taught us anything"

Great sense of humor of him, given his profession, but oh so accurate.

I would personally add to this, that critical thinking and common sense is also missing from the "society" on the average, and since our Democracy in general works that way, that to be elected, one need to "ring the bells" for the majority, well, here's the outcome: stupidity rules.


Back on the topic; it is official: Ben Bernanke, while he hates sound currency, small investors and sane economy in general, is PM bugs' Best Friend (hopefully, not Forever)! Every time he opens his pie hole, Gold skyrockets. We shall make a petition to him, to keep him talking.

Actually, could we have a topic, that would collect the dates of future communications from the Fed - I think it would help the traders among us to make few more bobs. It is a sure bet!
 
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swissaustrian said:
No inflation or GDP target this time, ...
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Dewey defeats Truman!

Well, we got an inflation target from the Fed. Basically, thinking at the Fed has been eliminated. The process has been automated. Bernanke has convinced the Fed board to adopt Core PCE as a determinate of monetary policy. So long as CPCE stays below 2%, Ben is going to have his foot planted on the monetary metal. It’s “full speed ahead” according to the Chairman. He's pushed things off until 2014 - a very long time from now.

My question: “Why is the Fed using CPCE versus another measure of inflation?” The very good news is that there is answer, and it comes from a very "reliable" source – The Federal Reserve. A detailed analysis on this topic was conveniently made public just a month ago.
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More: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/bernanke-goes-all
 
Another source confirms:
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The Federal Open Market Committee committed to holding inflation at 2 percent, concluding years of debate that Bernanke advanced after becoming Fed chief in 2006. ...
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The personal consumption expenditures price index -- the price measure officials chose for their inflation target -- is expected to be below the 2 percent goal at the end of this year. The FOMC’s central tendency estimate for the PCE index was 1.4 to 1.8 percent for this year, 1.4 percent to 2 percent next year, and 1.6 percent to 2 percent in 2014. The measure rose to 2.5 percent for the 12 months ending November.
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More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...ward-more-openness-with-2-inflation-goal.html
 
So it's defacto inflation targeting without an official announcement.
Typical central bank doubleplusgoodspeak. :snidely:
 
Here's the Fed's press release:
Following careful deliberations at its recent meetings, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has reached broad agreement on the following principles regarding its longer-run goals and monetary policy strategy. The Committee intends to reaffirm these principles and to make adjustments as appropriate at its annual organizational meeting each January.
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The inflation rate over the longer run is primarily determined by monetary policy, and hence the Committee has the ability to specify a longer-run goal for inflation. The Committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's statutory mandate. Communicating this inflation goal clearly to the public helps keep longer-term inflation expectations firmly anchored, thereby fostering price stability and moderate long-term interest rates and enhancing the Committee's ability to promote maximum employment in the face of significant economic disturbances.
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http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20120125c.htm
 
Ummmm that would be quite bullish for the shiny stuff. I wish I had some dry powder left....
 
We're way above 2%. And I say that because 'way above' can easily be argued. If I was speeding down a highway 100% faster than the speed limit, I would be going 'way above' the speed limit.

This is what the Fed is doing. And whenever the number they get isn't what they wanted to see, they change their math so that it can be reported closer to their 'goal' of 2%.
I wish all those jerks that get to ask questions at a press conference would ask some questions that draw tears and blood, instead of asking him to repeat himself for 20 minutes.
 
Absolutely they are marking gains higher than they should be.

We don't need to point out the song and dance the Fed is doing to each other at PMBUG. I know we're all aware of the farce. It is why we're here. I feel bad for spouting off about it, but it does just get frustrating that the Fed can just make up numbers to give the illusion to "Attention Deficit Disorder America" that everything will work out in the long run. My faith is gone, my trust is broken, I am trapped in this shit, and I am pissed about it.
 
Hopefully this is just an effort to shore up political cover for the QE plans. Worst case (down the road almost a given), the announcement gives the Fed carte blanche to engage in QE implicitly - without explicit notice to the markets.
 
PMBug said:
Hopefully this is just an effort to shore up political cover for the QE plans. Worst case (down the road almost a given), the announcement gives the Fed carte blanche to engage in QE implicitly - without explicit notice to the markets.
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Or it gives them the cover for the QE the are already undertaking... I suspect that's part of the reason why the spreads improved over in Europe.
 
The dollar really got under selling pressure after the FOMC announcement, especially against the euro.
 
Rickards weighs in:
... This is what Rickards had to say about the Fed’s press conference and what they are planning in the future: “Well it really was an extraordinary press conference that the Chairman gave the other day. This one was quite a fireworks show in terms of how Bernanke was, in effect, engaged in a massive disinformation campaign with reporters and by extension the American people, over the Fed’s true intentions. I watched it and was really blown away by the tenor of it.”

Bernanke made it crystal clear they were going to go to some kind of quantitative easing. One of the reporters asked, ‘Do you worry that inflation may get out of control?’ The Chairman (Bernanke) responded, ‘We’re targeting 2% inflation.’ Of course, I don’t believe that. My belief is they are targeting something like 4% or 5%.

When they hit 4% or 5% and, in effect, (they will) spook people into spending money or getting into riskier assets. They want to stampede people into lending and spending again to get the velocity up and get the economy going. That’s the plan. It’s a game of expectations, it’s a game of psychological manipulation. One of the ways to do that is to set expectations low and then deliver a much higher inflation number.

So when the reporter asked him if inflation could get away from him, Bernanke said, ‘Yes.’ His exact words were, ‘Inflation may move away from desired levels.’ To me that was code for saying it will move away from desired levels.”
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http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldn...er_Spike_as_We_See_the_End_of_the_Dollar.html
 
They had better be extremely careful; what they wish for as regards velocity of money. If all the cash sloshing around in bank excess reserves gets out on the street, the inflation we will see would be legendary, maybe even hyper. We should have let the big banks all fail in 2008, allow the system to flush out the bad decisions and greedy bankers. There should have been mass prosecutions and reparations paid to those who were lied to and stolen from. Instead, we rewarded them by permitting them to double down on CDS to the tune of trillions, we allowed them to borrow money for free, then paid them interest to redeposit it with the government and let them still pay out ridiculous bonuses. We now permit FHA to back loans on houses with three percent down by the consumers and are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to artificially prop up home values, instead of allowing prices to find equilibrium naturally.

No, I think more velocity of money is not what we need. What we need is a sane fiscal policy where recklessness and greed are punished instead of rewarding it. We need the present paradigm to collapse so the phoenix may rise from the ashes and permit us to right all that is wrong with the current system.

If "they" do not allow it to happen organically, it will happen suddenly and without warning, plunging the entire globe in to a depression from which we will not emerge for a decade.

I quite suspect we will experience the latter. But that's just me.
 
The financial-market crisis is not over but has grown into a vicious sovereign-debt crisis. Nevertheless, monetary policy makers of the major economies go on to practice the same sort of policy that has led to the crisis. Following the model of inflation targeting, they continue to disregard the quantity of money and the amount and kind of credit creation. As they did before, central bankers cut interest rates as low as they can. Few seem to remember that the monetary-policy concept of inflation targeting was adopted with the promise that low and stable inflation rates would produce financial and economic stability. Reality has not confirmed this assurance. On the contrary, inflation targeting was instrumental in bringing about the current financial crisis.
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More: http://mises.org/daily/5885/Inflation-Targeting-Hits-the-Wall
 
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