interest rates

Podcast

Oleksii Sergieiev | Dreamstime

iTunes | Google Play | Download | Report Problem

Richard Sylla: This Is An Inherently Dangerous Moment In History

Low interest rates are causing distortions & mis-allocations
by Adam Taggart
Monday, August 7, 2017, 2:42 PM

"The rates we’ve had in recent years, including right now, are the lowest in history. The book that I co-authored on the history of interest rates traces back to the code of Hammurabi, Babylonian civilization, Greek and Roman civilization, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early modern history right up to the present. And I can assure our listeners that the rates that they’re experiencing right now are the lowest in human history."

So says Richard Sylla, Professor Emeritus of Economics and the Former Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is also co-author of the book A History Of Interest Rates. 

We invited Professor Sylla onto the podcast after hearing his work favorably referenced by the panel convened at the recent hearing held by the US Congress titled: “The Federal Reserve’s Impact on Main Street, Retirees and Savings.”

Based on his deep study across the scope of millennia of human history, Sylla warns we are at a dangerous moment in time. » Read more

Podcast
iTunes | Google Play | Download | Report Problem

Alex J. Pollock: Insights From The Recent Congressional Hearing On The Fed

Finally, some lawmakers are becoming concerned
by Adam Taggart
Monday, July 24, 2017, 2:43 PM

On June 28th 2017, the United States Congress held a hearing titled: “The Federal Reserve’s Impact on Main Street, Retirees and Savings.” If you haven't watched it yet, we highly recommend doing so.

Joining us for today's podcast is Alex J. Pollock, one of the experts who participated on that Congressional panel. In this discussion, he details out his assessments of the Fed's major transgressions against the interests of the general public. But perhaps more interestingly, he shares his observations from the hearing and how it struck him that many of the members of Congress that convened it appear to be growing increasingly concerned about the Fed's lack of accountability, as well as its potential fallibility. » Read more

Blog

What To Do With Your Cash?

Is it folly to hold cash right now? Or brilliant?
by Adam Taggart
Saturday, July 22, 2017, 12:19 AM

Have you moved a material percentage of your financial portfolio to cash? Have you become so concerned about the meteoric ramp upwards in asset prices that you find it wiser instead to move to the sidelines, build "dry powder", and wait to re-enter the markets at saner valuations?

If so, you have my sympathies.

The past 5+ years have been brutal for savers pursuing this strategy. I know this well, as I'm one of those folks, too. » Read more

Insider

Off The Cuff: The Schizophrenic Fed

Rates are going higher. No they aren't. Yes they are. No...
by Adam Taggart
Friday, July 14, 2017, 12:59 PM

In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Axel Merk discuss:

  • No Rate Hike After All?
    • Yellen sings a dovish tune this week
  • Wait, Wasn't The Fed Just Warning It Would Tighten?
    • Yep. It was talking tough up until now
  • Why Can't The Fed Make Up It's Mind?
    • Because it's in a box. Jawboning is all it can do at this point
  • The Next Fed Head
    • A complete transformation may be in store soon

Chris and Axel unpack the latest guidance from the Fed issued this week. For those listening, the Fed's inconsistency is understandably infuriating. One week it's warning about tightening ahead, the next it's telling folks rates are just fine where they are.

Axel, who has more inside access to current & past Fed officials than anyone we know, feels that the Fed is simply trying to walk a tightrope it knows will one day snap. At this point, it's trapped. It needs to normalize rates, but doing so will crash the markets. So it's using the only tool it has -- confusion -- to keep the system fooled that everything is under control. Of course, one day the ruse will be discovered. But until then, the Fed will obfuscate, vacillate, prevaricate -- whatever it can do to keep the status quo in place for one more day...

Click to listen to a sample of this Off the Cuff Podcast or Enroll today to access the full audio and other premium content today.
» Read more
Insider

Off The Cuff: What Today's Rate Hike Means

Another increase, plus a reduction of the balance sheet
by Adam Taggart
Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 8:30 PM

In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and John Rubino discuss:

  • Unpacking Today's Rate Hike
    • What will the impact be?
  • When Is A Rate Hike Not A Rate Hike?
    • The Fed's hikes aren't really pulling liquidity out of the market
  • Every time The Fed Talks Gold Goes Down
    • Manipulation (for optics) is alive & well
  • Can The Fed Engineer A Soft Exit?
    • Hardly likely

Chris and John break down today's Fed announcement of a 0.25% rate hike, plus its presented schedule for starting to reduce it's $4.2 trillion balance sheet. 

Click to listen to a sample of this Off the Cuff Podcast or Enroll today to access the full audio and other premium content today. » Read more

Podcast

perfectlab/Shutterstock

iTunes | Google Play | Download | Report Problem

Steen Jakobsen: 60% Probability Of Recession In The Next 18 Months

The world economic engine is slowing to a standstill
by Adam Taggart
Sunday, June 11, 2017, 6:46 PM

Steen Jakobsen back on, Chief Investment Officer of Saxo Bank, returns to the podcast this week to share with us the warning signs of slowing economic growth he's seeing in major markets all over the world.

In his view, the world economy is sputtering badly. So badly, that he's confident predicting a global recession by 2018 -- or sooner. » Read more

Blog

Jennbang | Dreamstime.com

Less Than Zero: How The Fed Killed Saving

It destroyed the incentive to do it
by Adam Taggart
Friday, June 2, 2017, 6:27 PM

Savings accounts were created to provide an incentive for people to plan for the future. Put money away today, let it grow through the miracle of compounding interest, and have more tomorrow.

Prudent savings is essential to a healthy economy. It offers resilience during downturns, and provides seed capital for productive enterprise.

But we are no longer a nation of savers. The Federal Reserve has killed the incentive to be one. » Read more

Blog

The Federal Reserve Is Destroying America

And wait until you hear what they're getting away with now
by Chris Martenson
Friday, May 26, 2017, 11:50 PM

The Federal Reserve is destroying America. 

It might have good intentions, but it's working with bad models. Ones that lead to truly horrible outcomes.

One of the chief failings of central banks is that they are slaves to an impossible idea; the notion that humans are free to pursue perpetual exponential economic growth on a finite planet.  » Read more

Insider

Off The Cuff: Buy The @%&^ Dip!

This phrase will be a widow-maker in the next downturn
by Adam Taggart
Thursday, May 25, 2017, 5:20 PM

In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Mike "Mish" Shedlock discuss:

  • Fake, Fictitious Markets
    • None of today's prices is justified by the underlying data
  • Death By Drowning
    • Too much liquidity is killing our markets
  • Housing Bubble Trouble?
    • Prices now declining in the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Buy The @%&^ Dip!
    • What will happen when this universal strategy no longer works?

After last week's brief re-emergence of volatility in the financial markets, the world's various sovereign plunge protection teams have been hard at work flooding liquidity into the system to push prices back up. Losses will not be tolerated!

And so the "Buy the dip!" crowd is victorious once again. This strategy, mindless as it is, has worked extremely well over the past 6 years -- due to an ever-present influx of 'thin air' $billions supplied by the central banks. But for many reasons, that mindless approach can't -- and won't -- continue forever. And likely not for much longer.

Click to listen to a sample of this Off the Cuff Podcast or Enroll today to access the full audio and other premium content today. » Read more

End Of Money Webinar - May 25, 2017 @ Noon EST

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We here at PeakProsperity.com are particularly concerned about the central banks' next actions, as we believe their policies are creating the greatest wealth transfer of all time -- from the hard-earned savings of the public, and into the pockets of an elite few. (More on our conclusions can be read here).

Which is why, via our brand-new webinar platform, we're giving you insider access to several of the world's top experts on the central banking system, world currencies and financial markets.

During this 3-hour webinar, you'll hear their latest intelligence and forecasts AND be able to ask each speaker questions directly. This will be an amazingly rich and interactive experience.

Speaker bios & quotes

Register Now button

 

» Read more