Fed To Markets: Buy Gold And Silver

by John Rubino on January 25, 2012

The Fed just spoke. Here’s a slightly edited transcript:

Blah blah blah … the economy has been expanding moderately … blah blah blah boilerplate inanity blatant lie … the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability ….
To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the dual mandate, the Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.

Welcome To The Third World, Part 4: Boomers Reap What They’ve Sown

by John Rubino on December 19, 2011

In retrospect it seems so obvious. If Boomers had been paying attention, instead of buying 4,000 square foot houses, new cars and big screen TVs, we’d have reacted to rising indebtedness by living small and saving big from the 1980s onward. Instead of voting for whoever promised the most free stuff, we’d have demanded balanced budgets and hard choices.

But we didn’t. We became “consumers” rather than builders. Our savings rate was near-zero for much of this time, and our debt ballooned during what should have been our prime saving years. So what’s coming isn’t a natural disaster. It’s the result of choices made by intelligent, well-educated people who should have known better.