Money and Finance
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: The Other Side Of The Mountain
Link to: The Other Side of the MountainThe financial markets are at a transition that reflects tension between two realities. The first is that the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing has driven the stock market to valuations associated...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Superstition Ain't The Way
“The problem with QE is that it works in practice but it doesn’t work in theory.” - Ben Bernanke, Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman, January 16, 2014 "When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition...
- Hussman Funds Semi-annual Report
The U.S. economy appears suspended at the boundary between tepid growth and recession, requiring a trillion-dollar federal deficit and unprecedented monetary easing simply to maintain that position. The Federal Reserve continues a well-known and fully-announced...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Recession Warning, And The Proper Policy Response
As of Friday, the S&P 500 was below its level of early November 2010, when the Federal Reserve initiated its second round of quantitative easing. Aside from a brief bump in demand that kicked the recession can down the road a bit, the U.S. economy...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Bubble, Crash, Bubble, Crash, Bubble...
Last week, the Federal Reserve confirmed its intention to engage in a second round of "quantitative easing" - purchasing about $600 billion of U.S. Treasury debt over the coming months, in addition to about $250 billion that it already planned to purchase...
Money and Finance
2010 Repost: WSJ Op-Ed: Open Letter to Ben Bernanke
As talk of QE3 remains in the headlines, I thought it might be a good time to review this Op-Ed, which was signed by Seth Klarman, Jim Grant, Jim Chanos and Niall Ferguson, among others, in November of 2010.
The following is the text of an open letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signed by several economists, along with investors and political strategists, most of them close to Republicans:
We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.
We subscribe to your statement in the Washington Post on November 4 that “the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy’s problems on its own.” In this case, we think improvements in tax, spending and regulatory policies must take precedence in a national growth program, not further monetary stimulus.
We disagree with the view that inflation needs to be pushed higher, and worry that another round of asset purchases, with interest rates still near zero over a year into the recovery, will distort financial markets and greatly complicate future Fed efforts to normalize monetary policy.
The Fed’s purchase program has also met broad opposition from other central banks and we share their concerns that quantitative easing by the Fed is neither warranted nor helpful in addressing either U.S. or global economic problems.
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: The Other Side Of The Mountain
Link to: The Other Side of the MountainThe financial markets are at a transition that reflects tension between two realities. The first is that the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing has driven the stock market to valuations associated...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Superstition Ain't The Way
“The problem with QE is that it works in practice but it doesn’t work in theory.” - Ben Bernanke, Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman, January 16, 2014 "When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition...
- Hussman Funds Semi-annual Report
The U.S. economy appears suspended at the boundary between tepid growth and recession, requiring a trillion-dollar federal deficit and unprecedented monetary easing simply to maintain that position. The Federal Reserve continues a well-known and fully-announced...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Recession Warning, And The Proper Policy Response
As of Friday, the S&P 500 was below its level of early November 2010, when the Federal Reserve initiated its second round of quantitative easing. Aside from a brief bump in demand that kicked the recession can down the road a bit, the U.S. economy...
- Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Bubble, Crash, Bubble, Crash, Bubble...
Last week, the Federal Reserve confirmed its intention to engage in a second round of "quantitative easing" - purchasing about $600 billion of U.S. Treasury debt over the coming months, in addition to about $250 billion that it already planned to purchase...