ECON Gold is Already Predicting the Next Fed Chairman

hypoluxo

Veteran Lurker
The guy goes on to promote his investment newsletter, but his premise is still interesting.

http://www.gainspainscapital.com/

or

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Summers/mar012011.html

Gold is acting fishy.

Indeed, while emerging markets are generally going up in flames (literally) Gold hasn’t done much of anything since October 2010. Heck, we haven’t even retested the previous highs despite all the turmoil.

It’s odd, Gold should be above $1,500 per ounce by now given what’s going on in the world. By all counts demand for the precious metal is increasing dramatically.

Central banks became net buyers of the precious metal last year. China gold purchases rose five fold. Indian purchases of bullion are believed to have hit a record last year. Even the US mint ran out of Gold Buffalo coins in September 2010.

So what gives? Why is Gold not EXPLODING higher yet?

I have a sneaking suspicion the market is beginning to discount some MAJOR changes in the US Federal Reserve… changes that NO ONE seems to be talking about. Those changes are*:

1. There will be no QE 3.
2. Bernanke will be dumped as Fed Chairman.
3. Kansas Fed President Tom Hoenig will be the next Fed Chairman

*some of this analysis stems from a conversation with Bill King of Ramsey King Securities

Regarding #1, the whole QE game is over. I know that most folks believe Bernanke will issue QE all the way to infinite, but the actual likelihood of this is low given the public’s outrage over the continued bailouts and the like. Obama and the rest of Washington can sell out to the Wall Street banks all they want. But when the US starts experiencing the sort of turmoil that is rocking the Middle East (and it will, mark my words) the QE game will end.

Regarding #2, there are “three stooges” involved in the Great US Swindle occurring today. They are, the big banks, the politicians, and Bernanke. When the public starts rioting which one of these three is going to be sacrificed?

Bernanke.

The big banks have been in power in the country for most of its history. They might get broken up or rearranged, but the elite banker class will always exist no matter what reform. Ditto for politicians.

But Bernanke? He’s just an academic puppet. He can be replaced by another figurehead while the system remains in place. Indeed, I fully expect Bernanke is going to be canned as Fed Chairman before this term is up. Whether it’s Obama making a “Hail Mary” play to attempt re-election by trying to look like he’s actually engaging in reform or some other political move, market my words, Bernanke is the one who’s going to be sacrificed.

Regarding #3, Fed Kansas President Honeig recently uttered a series of absolutely INCREDIBLE remarks concerning the US Federal Reserve. He said the US has “deeply” undermined free-market capitalism and that the TBTF banks pose the “greatest” risk to the economy.

These statements are absolutely extraordinary coming from a Fed insider. Remember, these guys are all ultimately politicians, so this kind of aggressive is a clear indication that Hoenig has seen the writing on the wall and is distancing himself from Bernanke as much as possible in order to present himself as a potential future Hawk Fed Chairman who would be called in to reign in inflation much as Paul Volcker did in the ‘80s.

However, before all of this happens, I fully expect we’ll see another bout of inflation similar to that which occurred in the 70s. You can already see this happening as inflation hedges explode higher across the board:

Asset Price 1/1/10 Price 2/22/11 % Change

Oil 82.75 94.64 14%

Gold 1,137 1,397 23%

Silver 16.81 33.05 97%

Wheat* 5.53 7.62 38%

Corn* 4.25 6.79 60%

Cattle 85.00 110 29%

Sugar** 26 31 19%

* per bushel
** cents per pound


Both Gold and Silver will perform well in the coming months. However, their performance will pale compared to other, less well know inflation hedges.

Why?

Everyone knows that Gold and Silver are the most obvious inflation hedges out there. And to be blunt, anyone who invests in these two assets will likely do very well in the coming months as inflation erupts in the US.

However, to make truly ENORMOUS gains from inflation you need to find the investments that are off the radar… investments that the rest of the investment world hasn't discovered yet
 

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Thomas M. Hoenig
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Hoenig

Thomas M. Hoenig (born September 6, 1946) took office October 1, 1991, as the eighth chief executive of the Tenth District Federal Reserve Bank, in Kansas City, United States. He is currently serving a full term that began March 1, 2001. In 2010, he is serving as a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, as one of five of the twelve Federal Reserve Bank presidents that sit on the Committee on a yearly rotating basis. He is known as an inflation hawk.[1]


Life and career

Hoenig was born in Fort Madison, Iowa. He earned a B.A. in economics and mathematics from St. Benedict's College (now Benedictine College), Atchison, Kansas, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Iowa State University.[2]

Hoenig joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1973 as an economist in the banking supervision area. He was named a vice president in 1981 and senior vice president in 1986.

According to Fed salary figures released for 2010, Hoenig earns $374,400 per year, in the mid-range for the twelve regional bank chairs and considerably more than Fed chair Ben Bernanke ($199,700), whose pay is limited by law.[3]

He has served as an instructor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and lectured on the U.S. banking and regulatory system for the People's Bank of China. Dr. Hoenig is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and serves on the boards of directors of Midwest Research Institute and Union Station.
 

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Oh, how convenient having such a person ready
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The Inconvenient Truth Of Fed’s Hoenig

http://newswires-americas.com/randomnotes/?p=6626#more-6626

Posted by Neal Lipschutz on February 17, 2010
Central Banks, Credit Crisis, Credit Markets, Economy, Federal Reserve, Politics, United States, Wall Street, Washington

A veteran U.S. central banker has bravely presented us with his own inconvenient truth. It takes an optimist to believe the political will exists in the U.S. to see through his preferred remedy.

In a speech text Tuesday discussing the long-term threat of huge fiscal budget deficits to the U.S. economy and to the independence of the U.S. central bank, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas M. Hoenig said the following:

“There is no way to avoid some short-term pain in fixing the fundamentals in our economy. It is inconvenient for the election cycle, and it is undeniably terrible to have at least 10% of the labor force out of work. But short cuts now mean people out of work again in only a few years because we again try and avoid difficult adjustments.”

The world is watching Greece right now to see if its populace will be willing to accept government austerity to pay down its debts and get them in better line with gross domestic output.

But similar questions loom, albeit without the same intensity or deadlines, in every Western democracy. Will, when the time comes to pay back for the spending done to keep economies from the abyss, the voters of Western democracies vote for sacrifice?

Will any of the politicians running for federal offices in these countries even have the courage to offer a platform of short-term pain to avoid the next crisis based on runaway sovereign debt? Will anyone vote for them?

Macroeconomics and politics in our day are completely intertwined. And we seem unable to plan, to think ahead. We believe things will bump along and turn out all right. Until they don’t.

The late economist Herb Stein famously said “if something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” But, still, we are surprised and generally unprepared when it stops.

“As a central banker, it is my responsibility to anticipate and avoid the consequences that an unchecked expansion of the debt may have on monetary policy,” Hoenig said. He added that the pressures caused by huge deficits could threaten Fed independence.

That independence is already under some assault in the U.S. Congress.

“It seems inevitable that a government turns to its central bank to bridge budget shortfalls, with the result being too-rapid money creation and eventually, not immediately, high inflation,” Hoenig said. “Such outcomes require either a cooperative central bank or an infringement on its independence.”

So, Hoenig understandably says, the time to act is before the fiscal burdens taken on by the U.S. government prove too much. That is a tough thing to say when government spending seems to still be a needed support for a light and fragile economic recovery.

“Fiscal policy is on an unsustainable course,” Hoenig said. “If pre-emptive corrective action is not taken … then the United States risks precipitating its own next crisis.”

Tags: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Neal Lipschutz, Thomas M. Hoenig, U.S. Federal Reserve
 

Dex

Constitutional Patriot
They simply can't allow it to go higher at this time. It's all about manipulation until the other shoe drops.
 

Double_A

TB Fanatic
They are keeping things in check until they've bought their fill. At that point they will take off the restraints and watch it zoom.

A year ago I would have been worried about them coming for the average joe's few coins, I not any more. I think when they've got all they can, they won't give a crap about the 2 or 3 million people in the world that have any amount of PM of consequence because they will have 99.99%
 

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
Indications are that, across the globe, there is more physical gold in private hands right now than in the vaults of all the central banks put together. See http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/10/power-has-shifted-individuals-now-own.html and similar articles for more on this if you want... the piece linked above is short, the snip below is the text of it:

=================
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2010
The Power Has Shifted: Individuals Now Own More Gold Than Central Banks

FT reports:
JPMorgan has reopened an underground gold vault in New York that was mothballed in the 1990s, in the latest sign of the soaring appetite for bullion...

Many commercial banks dismantled their vaults in the 1980s and 1990s. But now they are rushing to build: JPMorgan recently built a vault in Singapore, while Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital are considering opening new vaults in London.

The demand for storage comes as investors are buying physical gold rather than investing in precious metals futures or mining equities. Private investors hold about 30,000 tonnes of gold, according to the consultancy GFMS – more than a sixth of the world’s gold and, for the first time in modern history, more than central banks...Many historic vaults cannot be reopened as they have been converted into restaurants: one New York vault built in 1902 for John Pierpont Morgan is now home to a steakhouse.
===========

As to gold not hitting new highs- it just did. Maybe too late to meet the writer's publishing deadline, but still, he should have hedged to allow for the possibility. Absolute statements don't work well in a changing environment...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-settles-at-fresh-record-high-2011-03-02?siteid=rss
March 2, 2011, 2:09 p.m. EST
Gold settles at fresh record high

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures settled at a fresh record high Wednesday, buoyed by safe-haven buying on inflation fears and worries about the Middle East and North Africa. Gold for April delivery (GCJ11 1,428, -9.90, -0.69%) added $6.50, or 0.5%, to $1,437.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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I think there will eventually be another commodity-based currency... but it won't come until THE PUBLIC demands it. The central banksters and their pet politicians have built their empires on fiat money and simply will not give up fiat's power to extract wealth from the public until they absolutely are forced to do so. There will not be "honest money" in wide use again until the public catches on to the fiat money scam and rejects it completely, and there will have to be a long painful period of hard-knocks education for John Q. Public before that happens.

The classes in that hard-knocks education for JQP have been scheduled, but have not yet begun...

jmho, ymmv,

dd
 

hypoluxo

Veteran Lurker
I think there will eventually be another commodity-based currency... but it won't come until THE PUBLIC demands it. The central banksters and their pet politicians have built their empires on fiat money and simply will not give up fiat's power to extract wealth from the public until they absolutely are forced to do so. There will not be "honest money" in wide use again until the public catches on to the fiat money scam and rejects it completely, and there will have to be a long painful period of hard-knocks education for John Q. Public before that happens.

The classes in that hard-knocks education for JQP have been scheduled, but have not yet begun...

jmho, ymmv,

dd

Even then, they will not give up their fiat money easily. Fiat money gives them too many ways to play games in terms of valuations, inflation, and easy money for their own purposes.

Whatever Hoenig says, you can bet that he will toe the line if he ever becomes Fed chairman. Ultimately, he knows who he works for, and it isn't us.
 
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