Dear Fed: Are You Insane?

A Clinical Assessment Were you forwarded this email? [Sign-up to The Daily Reckoning here.]( [Unsubscribe]( [Daily Reckoning] Dear Fed: Are You Insane? - “Dear Fed, are you insane?”… - This isn’t 1932 anymore… - “Demand isn't the problem, supply is the problem, and it can't be resolved by printing more currency or lowering interest rates or cranking up inflation”… Recommended Link [Billionaire Leaves Crowd In Shock]( [Read more here...]( An audience of a few hundred (including myself) quietly gathered in Washington D.C. a few months back. That’s when the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, took the stage… and shocked the entire room. It all has to do with this image you see on your screen… showing a surprising new discovery he’s made. Not only will this blow you away… it could also transform the American economy forever. See Elon’s shocking reveal (plus see what it means for you)… [Click Here To Learn More]( San Francisco, California August 14, 2021 Editor’s note: Is the Fed insane? Today, Charles Hugh Smith shows you why it appears that way, and why the Keynesian solutions of the past don’t work today. [Charles Hugh Smith]Dear Reader, History definitively shows that speculative bubbles always pop—always. Every speculative bubble mania, regardless of its supposed uniqueness —"it's different this time" — pops. No speculative bubble has ever "reached a permanently high plateau" and then remained on the plateau for years. So what does the Federal Reserve do? It inflates the biggest speculative bubble in modern history and then implicitly promises it will never pop. Dear Fed, are you insane? You might as well make a public pronouncement that stocks have "reached a permanently high plateau" that will be followed by a permanent ascent to ever-higher plateaus, as that is the implicit message you've been sending punters and pundits. Is The Fed Trying to Accelerate Revolution and Collapse? To promise a speculative mania that never ends is insane, yet that is precisely what the Fed is doing. Nothing else matters except "the Fed has our back." The Fed is also effectively promising that debt, leverage and wealth/income inequality will also all ascend higher forever. Once again history moots this happy story, as soaring wealth/income/ political power asymmetries that serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many inevitably generate revolution or regime collapse. Dear Fed: is your "plan" to accelerate revolution and collapse? If so, you are insane. Has your hubris reached new extremes in la-la-land or are you so disconnected from reality that you're closing your eyes and going to your happy place where it all magically works out without the extremes you've single-handedly created reverting to the mean? So sorry, America, but your central bank is certifiably insane, and it's not going to magically work out. The speculative bubbles in credit, leverage and assets will pop and the extremes of wealth/income/political power inequality will swing to the opposite extreme. The Fed is so fixated on “demand” and Keynesian economics, it can’t conceive of any realistic alternatives. But let’s compare the world of the 1930s to today… Demand, Demand, Demand To the degree that we inhabit an economic order dominated by Keynes and "demand," then any discussion of inflation has to circle round to Keynes and his magic solution to all economic ills: "demand," otherwise known as money burning a hole in your pocket. Keynes' solution to depression, unemployment and virtually every other economic ill was to stimulate demand for goods and services by giving people more money and making it easier for them to borrow more money, with the key incentives being to promote more spending, not more savings and investment. The more people were encouraged to borrow and spend, the more demand for goods and services would increase and this growth would solve all economic ills. Productivity and supply aren't issues in the magical world of Keynesian economics: Keynes famously suggested that paying people to dig holes and then fill them was one way to get more money into pockets for people to spend. In this economic order, inflation is a useful incentive to nudge people into spending their money rather than saving and investing it, as all cash will buy less next year in an inflationary regime. Recommended Link [World’s Richest Man’s Latest Bombshell]( [Read more here...]( His first BOMBSHELL shook the retail industry and completely turned it upside down. And now the man is targeting another $2 trillion industry with his latest BOMBSHELL. It could bankrupt household name companies. It could disrupt established industries... It could make folks like you a fortune. The fuse has already been lit... and on August 23 I believe he’ll reveal a few more details. If you missed out on taking advantage of the Amazon success story... don’t miss out again. [Click Here Now]( 1932 Here's the problem with the Keynesian economic order: it stopped the gold watch in 1932 when the world's supply of oil and other resources could still be viewed as semi-infinite: supply was just waiting for more demand as a signal to increase. If demand increased, supply would always magically increase in parallel. In this magical kingdom of Keynes, any scarcity shortage would be transitory for two reasons: 1) stuff was basically infinite; there was always some new source to mine, drill, extract, etc., and 2) there is always a substitute for whatever is temporarily scarce: if the beef supply can't be ramped up to meet demand, then people can buy a substitute, which is presumed to be in unlimited supply. In 1932, the world was still awash in oil, and hydrocarbons and minerals seemed abundant beyond measure. The human population was growing but nowhere near utilizing the planet's agricultural and fresh water supplies. Everything was essentially infinite; scarcities were transitory or localized. 2021 Set the gold watch for 2021 and none of these conditions apply. The human populace has roughly quadrupled from 2 billion to 8 billion, the energy consumed per capita in developed nations has skyrocketed, resources are limited by depletion and costs of extraction, and as a result, scarcities are not transitory, they're permanent. Inflation isn't just a mechanism to incentivize borrowing and spending now rather than later, it's a policy of impoverishment of the bottom 90%. The wealthy have income and capital gains from assets which bubble higher in the magical kingdom of Keynes, while those who depend on wages for their living lose ground every second the watch ticks forward in time. Keynesian magic can't conjure substitutes for fresh water, wild fisheries, cobalt or even semiconductor-grade sand. In the world of 2021, demand is not the issue; supply is the issue, and the Keynesian magicians are literally blind to the consequences of this change. It’s the Supply, Stupid The problem isn't there isn't enough money burning a hole in consumers' pockets; the problem is the price of goods extracted from the physical world and shipped across the world is rising far faster than the Keynesians can stuff money into pockets. The other problem is that there are no substitutes for what is scarce, and unless the Keynesian conjurers can magically turn dirt into cobalt, make heat and pollution vanish and provide magic carpets for moving stuff around frictionlessly, then the economy will increasingly be dominated by scarcities and shortages of resources and other inputs for which there are no substitutes. It's a different world, people, so move your gold watches from 1932 to 2021, or suffer the consequences of delusional faith in fake magic. Demand isn't the problem, supply is the problem, and it can't be resolved by printing more currency or lowering interest rates or cranking up inflation. Regards, Charles Hugh Smith for The Daily Reckoning Editor’s note: Real wealth comes from innovation and productivity, not the printing press. And a [wealth revolution]( is coming. And the man they call “America’s #1 futurist”… “Wall Street’s most influential technology trader”… and “a true American genius”... says it could potentially make you very, very, rich. How so? “We’re headed for a potential $16.8 trillion reboot,” he says. “Nobody will remain untouched. And a few early investors could walk away with a king's ransom.” What’s this $16.8 trillion reboot all about? [Click this link to find out more…]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Charles Hugh Smith][Charles Hugh Smith]( is an American writer and blogger, and serves as the chief writer for the blog "Of Two Minds". Started in 2005, this site has been listed No. 7 in CNBC's top alternative financial sites, and his commentary is featured on a number of sites including Zerohedge.com, The American Conservative, and Peak Prosperity. Add feedback@dailyreckoning.com to your address book: [Whitelist us]( Additional Articles & Commentary: [Daily Reckoning Website]( Join the conversation! Follow us on social media: [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [RSS Feed]( [YouTube]( The Daily Reckoning is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. 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