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In This Issue
The Crack-up Boom Series, Part VII
Currencies Do Not Float, They Sink at Different Rates.
The Crack Up Boom series is exploring the unfolding "Indirect Exchange" (as
detailed by Ludvig Von Mises), that dollar holders will be using to exit their
holdings now and eventually is will be followed by all holders of fiat currency
holdings no matter which country is perpetrating the "fraud" of confiscation
of wealth through the printing and credit creation process that all such monetary
schemes evolve into. The "Crack Up Boom" will drive an inflationary global
expansion to inconceivable heights over the coming years. Asset prices will
skyrocket as people do what they always do when threatened they will modify
their behavior and do the things necessary for "SELF PRESERVATION" of their
families, countries, economies and their wealth. Let's take a look at Von Mises'
description of the CRACK UP BOOM once again:
This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While
it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the
altered money relation. There are still people in the country who have not
yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution
which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices, although the
extent of this rise will not be the same in the various commodities and services.
These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this
day, they restrict their purchases and concomitantly increase their cash holdings.
As long as such ideas are still held by public opinion, it is not yet too late
for the government to abandon its inflationary policy.
But then finally the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact
that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A breakdown
occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against "real" goods,
no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to
pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few weeks or even days, the
things which were used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They
become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything against them.
It was this that happened with the Continental currency in America in 1781,
with the French Mandats Territoriaux in 1796, and with the German mark in 1923.
It will happen again whenever the same conditions appear. If a thing has to
be used as a medium of exchange, public opinion must not believe that the quantity
of this thing will increase beyond all bounds. Inflation is a policy that cannot
last. Thank you Ludwig.
Unfortunately, for us all this is now NOT an isolated currency policy as detailed
in the last paragraph, as globally virtually "ALL" governments are pursuing
this policy at this point. So first we will see the biggest offenders suffer
from their hubris AKA the "UNITED STATES" then it will rotate to all countries
who follow such monetary policies. Public Servants always and every time have
become Public Serpents robbing their constituents to further their personal
ambitions and collection of power and wealth.
Currencies Do Not Float, They Sink at Different Rates.
Ever since today's currencies were torn from their gold and silver underpinnings
you knew one thing at the beginning of each year. "You have to make 3% a year
just to break even on inflation". That number has now changed as the Developed
and Emerging world alike now churn out funny "faith based" money in any amount
that fits their ambitious goals. In the era of WORLDWIDE Fiat Money and credit
creation the number is probably double that rate. Financial authorities and
central banks have become adept at "Painting the tape", adjusting and statistically
manipulating the stated inflation numbers to reflect what they wish the publics
perception of inflation to be. This is now a worldwide epidemic of misinformation
used to manipulate the publics "expectations" about inflation, to mask the
deliberate government policy of inflation.
For instance we know that globally the increase in currencies in circulation
worldwide increased over 14% FOR THE WHOLE WORLD COMBINED in 2006 and is extending
this into 2007. Thank you www.financialsense.com for
this chart!
GLOBAL MONEY SUPPLY |
 |
as of 07/09/07 Country |
YOY % |

|
Russian Fed. M2 |
50.94 |
India M3 |
19.70 |
China M2 |
16.74 |
Australia M3 |
14.05 |
United Kingdom M4 |
13.84 |
Mexico M4 |
12.21 |
Brazil M2 |
11.92 |
Denmark M3 |
10.62 |
Korea M3 |
10.07 |
Canada M3 |
8.08 |
OECD Total M3 / Eurozone |
7.86/10.9 |
United States M3 reconstructed |
13.9 |
Germany M3 |
6.16 |
Gold has broken out against every major currency in the world and it is appreciating
at double digit rates against every piece of sovereign paper in the world,
which is the true inflation rate. (See Tedbits archives at www.traderview.com).
This next chart is courtesy of John Mauldin, he can be reached at john@frontlinethoughts.com it
is through January 2007. Thank you John!

This is fiat currency and credit creation illustrated in the price of GOLD,
now let's look at another chart illustrating the erosion of PAPER against real
money, ie gold. Once again this is courtesy of John Mauldin, and John can be
reached at John@frontlinethoughts.com

This is another illustration of paper versus REAL money. Both charts are through
January 2007. But what we can also see from these charts is how different currencies
fair against REAL money. Notice how the charts above show the strongest currencies
are the ones whose economies have the most REAL growth potential going forward?
The exchange rate difference in between any two currencies is also a reflection
of the many other factors such as; investment potentials in local currency
terms, interest rates between countries, relative inflation statistics, comparative
government policies, current and future growth rates, central bank policies,
tax policies, etc.
Managed exchange rates through currency market intervention also plays a role,
which is a purely political attempt to manipulate competitiveness against ones
trading partners and tilt the playing field to overcome the reflections of
government's bad policy choices. To the detriment or benefit of the local Mandarins
in whichever Capital they may reside. This has now morphed into self preservation
as the sheer size of US money printing dwarfs the float of all the worlds'
currencies. So they MUST print money or see their domestic ones skyrocket.
The United States had 20 years of prosperity in no small measure because the
dollar was rising and the government was able to print its way to prosperity
for much of that time. And because taxes were low for foreign investors (what
an incentive for foreign dollar holders, this too is now ending as well) in
the US. The US and credit and currency in circulation grew exponentially during
the great bull market in dollars. As near as I can tell it (the numbers are
fuzzy) dollars in circulation grew almost 600% in Greenspan's tenure as the
dollar became the reserve currency of the world. Central Banks and Savers relied
on the full faith, fiduciarily responsible, and reliability of the US government
to meet its obligations and to keep the straight and narrow.
So we gave them what they asked for Trillions and Trillions of dollars to
store their wealth in and shield them from their irresponsible local governments.
Those dollars then took the place of the gold and silver they used to hold
in their reserve vaults to underpin their currencies. They sold the metals
and other reserve assets and spent the money. Exchanging assets which have
no credit claims against them (gold and silver are no one else's liability)
and exchanging them for ones that do (the dollar is a claim against the US
government and ultimately citizens). Is there any major central bank whose
US dollar reserve holdings are not more than 50% of the total reserves? I don't
think so. Now those dollars are quickly doing the reverse of what ancient Alchemists
tried to do (they tried to change lead into gold). They are turning from gold
into Lead. And they are the elephant in the room, impossible to ignore and
impossible to hide.
The United States has built such a gargantuan pile of obligations, current
and future that it guarantees the destruction of any of the any intrinsic value
that may still be embedded in dollars. The current US budget spends $9,666
on every man woman and child in the United States, and this number has grown
60% in the last six years. And that doesn't include the Social Security and
Medicare trust funds they" BORROWED", which is 100s of billions more in unchecked
spending and theft from past generations represented by anyone who has paid
into social security, and future ones who will have to pay the money which
has been pilfered. They say Social Security and Medicare are not bankrupt and
there are trust funds, but they are gone, stolen from the "lock box", LOL.
A funding crisis that was not to be a problem for twenty years is now on the
close horizon.
According to the GAO (government accounting office) on balance sheet obligations
of the US government have grown during the Bush administration from 20 trillion
to over 47 trillion in less than 6 years. Non recognized future obligations
are at least another 20 trillion. State, municipal, corporate and individual
debts are not included in this number, and they are enormous, but that is another
story. Regulations and the size of government have increased almost 60% over
this period as a further impediment to future growth prospects. The new Democratic
majority is set to ratchet all of this up, in all of the mentioned areas. These
are calls on the future earnings of an economy whose GDP is approximately 13
trillion dollars. Obligations on the same children they say they want to protect
from global warming. There is no way we can grow our way into paying these
unpayable obligations. These promises to pay by the government will only be
met through the printing presses.
The guaranteed monetization of these obligations mean the reserves in central
banks around the world (they are up to 70% of the backing in central banks
for Euros, Yen, British Pounds, Yuan, British pounds, Russian Rubles, etc.
depending on the reserve holding of the respective central banks) are about
to begin a accelerated decline in value A "Crack Up Boom" is unfolding as Ludvig
Von Mises has outlined, as the "INDIRECT EXCHANGE" looms dead ahead. So we
now we know and can understand that a falling dollar will bring down the purchasing
value of every currency in the world, as the dollar is the reserve holding
in their central banks, reducing the currency values of the currency they back
in an equivalent manner. Does anyone understand what this means for gold
in terms of every currency in the world? It is time to buy every pullback...
Responsible government is now impossible in the United States, its all politics
all the time. Policies that reward and create wealth are now a distant memory
in the US, the "SOMETHING FOR NOTHING" constituent demanding the expansion
of government BENEFITS to offset the declines they relentlessly experience
at the grocery store checkout counters and in everything else they consume.
Republicans are Borrow and spenders and democrats are Tax and spenders, the
one thing they agree upon is the spending, creating more future new obligations.
Now we are seeing the entry of a newly enlarged and insidious element to the
spending plans of these politicians which know nothing else. It is PRINT and
Spend. And it is accelerating, almost a trillion dollars was created out of
thin air between July 2006 to July 2007, hidden as M3 is no longer reported.
I promise you it went into propping up the stock markets, runaway government
spending, supporting the dollar (as it was very close to a new 30 year LOW)
and smoothing out losses in the sub prime arena, just to name a few. Removing
balance sheet bombshells and propping up asset values. It is the Fed in action
as the buyer/lender of last resort, and it is set to continue "ad infinitum" forever.
There is no purpose which they will not support a quick printing to solve.
It is now second nature to them, it is the answer to every problem for them, "throw
money at it".
Now the Laws of unintended consequences (but they can be anticipated and these
are big investment opportunities) are kicking in for our foreign dollar holders
and lenders, and they are faced with a conundrum of epic proportions. They
are holding the proverbial ICE cube in their hands and bank accounts. It is
slated to melt, slowly now but it will gather steam as each holder forces the
other to speed up their diversification plans or lose out. And there is nowhere
to run as the dollars in circulation dwarfs the local currencies in size. A
conversion into another script will quickly turn ugly for the receiving currency
as it skyrockets in price and the holder of the dollar as it plummets. It must
primarily flow into assets, not currencies.
Governments around the world are setting up global investment corporations
to dump them, and emerging market central banks are signaling they won't be
accumulating many more. China alone is set to accumulate OVER 500 billion of
them in 2007, US dollar reserves in other developed and emerging nations are
SKYROCKETING as well. They will buy enough American goods to protect the value
of their dollar holdings and not a penny more. Many foreign exchange professionals
doubted the magnitude of their intentions in the statement. This may or may
not have been an overstatement or a Freudian slip about their future plans.
Take a look at this chart from a recent financial times (www.ft.com)
at the massive amounts currency recycling and treasuries purchases required
to stem the dollars demise and preserve currency competitiveness:
These
purchases are for SELF PRESERVATION purposes only as to fail to support the
budget and trade deficits of the US would be currency and export SUICIDE. The "twin" US
deficits have increased over 400% since 2000.
The governments of Iran and Malaysia no longer accept dollars, and Russia
has outlawed the speaking of assets in dollar terms. Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait
are heading for the exits of accepting dollars as well. Slowly but surely destroying
the US Politicians/public servant's ability to print infinite amounts of them
and exchange them for real wealth including OIL.
This is only the beginning as there is really nowhere to run, the positions
they hold are too big to swap into other currencies without destroying the
value of their dollar holdings on the offer and distorting the value of the
receiving currency by putting too much of them on the bidding side. And then
there is the US congress which does not quite understand the cows are already
out of the barn, it's too late, and their parties are over. But the "SHELL" game
will continued to be played as every day it is, the receivers of it get MORE
AND MORE outside the control of the US Hegemon.
The one redeeming aspect to the problems for the politicians in Washington
is that foreign holders of dollars don't vote in elections. Foreign holders
can run on the edges but not leave en masse, so it will be a long bleeding
process "death by a thousand cuts" as other repositories of wealth are developed
and moved into slowly. It's a game of hot potato as foreign holders search
the world over for another greater fool to take these dollars off their hands
in exchange for things that can't be printed!! Do you think the Chinese are
buying energy assets with dollars or Yuan?
How did we get to this point? Bretton Woods established the US dollar as the
world reserve currency. The US became creditor to the world. Over time, the
US government borrowing abused this power and Bretton Woods collapsed in the
early 1970's, when Nixon took the US off the gold standard. But other central
banks around the world continued to take in dollars believing they were an
asset and sold off gold reserves. Over time this asset is becoming a liability.
Four to five trillion dollars are now in foreign hands. From the largest
creditor in the world to now its largest debtor! This is why the dollars
days as the world's reserve currency are NUMBERED.
The currency market is the only one I am aware of that hopes the value of
the dollar will remain unchanged, those that are long the dollar: foreign banks
and dollar holders and those that are short the dollar US Federal Reserve banks
and the US government. It will not remain the same. The supply has overwhelmed
the demand. Those holding them will suffer at an ever increasing rate, as the "something
for nothing" constituent will never relinquish his mistaken assumption that
he can have "something for nothing", only the ultimate crisis will change his
path.
This was OK when dollars were mostly a domestic affair, but now it is international
in scope and over 5 Trillion of them are in the hands of international interests.
2.5 trillion of them sit in domestic money market funds. Dollars are NO LONGER
a unit of money backed by an asset (GOLD and SILVER) they are now like a bond;
they are a call on "FUTURE INCOME". They are IOU's written against the production
and property of the United States of America. Written and printed by "PUBLIC
SERVANTS" who use this money to buy votes and support from campaign supporters,
the "SOMETHING FOR NOTHING" constituents and their corporatist business partners. Every
time they print one and spend it you can expect a little less income in your
future and that of your children. Because you either owe it to the
Federal Reserve or to foreign suppliers of real stuff such as oil, and imported
products.
The FED's invisible hand of intervention is trying to keep interest rates
as low as the world will allow. But the world is becoming a bit nervous. The
US has SPENT and borrowed over $4.5 trillion from overseas. Some day it will
be repatriated. The exchange of paper for wealth will go into reverse. We will
get our paper back and have to return real wealth. Recently, the dollar has
been rapidly declining against the Euro and gold but at a much slower rate
against the Asian Tigers. Our biggest export under Greenspan's term was paper
- the US Dollar.
This has worked to the advantage of the emerging world as they have now been
CUT lose from their former financial masters, as they no longer have to look
no farther than themselves for lenders of last resort during financial crisis.
Formerly they were VICTIMS of the IMF (International monetary fund) and the
World Bank, who would impose crippling economic policy decisions as terms of
rescue. Severing their futures from their "WOULD BE" socialist masters in the
G7.
Since the maestro, Allan Greenspan took over; the dollar has lost 37% of its
value. Now we have Bernanke as the new head of the FED. When he left office
M3 money supply was growing at about 8% compounded annually. Bernanke has studied
the depression and deflation at great length so now money supply is growing
at 13.8% (reconstructed M3) compounded annually, a 50% increase in less than
a year and a half. He has stated the FED has many options to avoid deflation
including dropping dollars from helicopters if necessary, earning him the nick
name "Helicopter Ben.", you had BETTER believe him! This is not a man who is
prone to Hyperbole. LOL. The dollar bears the legend on it, "In God We Trust." This
was placed on US currency BEFORE the Federal Reserve was created. And before
the US government tried to substitute itself for "GOD". Placing your faith
in the Fed and Washington DC could be a dangerous plan. Someday, the dollar
could fall to its intrinsic value. De"nial" is not just a river in Egypt.
There are TWO ways currencies are created by central banks, one is very insidious
and one very virtuous to the future prospects of the economies they reside
in.
In the G7 money is created by DEBT, a call on future income. The treasury
of whatever country in which you reside, calls up the central bank and says
we need money. The central bank say's how much? If tax receipts are 20 billion
dollars and spending requirements are 50 billion dollars they then say: 30
billion dollars. The central bank then says send us a bond that is for 30 billion
dollars, so the government creates a bond for 30 billion dollars and hands
the repayment obligation to the public, current and future generations of them.
The Central bank sends them the 30 billion dollars and it is spent not on investment
in future wealth creation but on CONSUMPTION by the "something for nothing" constituents
and special interests which are their ticket to reelection. Saddling YOU with
the bill!
This cuts the citizens twice. Plus, since the currency is now backed by nothing,
the true holders of the obligations are the US citizens; their future earnings
and their property back those IOU's, since they are no longer backed by silver,
gold and REAL assets. The GDP of the United States grew less then 4% in 2006
on a 13 trillion dollar economy that is 520 billion dollars of GDP, so the
CURRENT obligations on 47 trillion dollars will take 90 years to pay off even
if you pay NO INTEREST, with the compounding of the debt the obligation DOUBLES
every 18 years at an interest rate of 5% (no way this is the average rate on
these obligations this low). Many believe that when you include state, municipal
and private obligations the amount of debt outstanding is over 80 Trillion
dollars in which case an economy growing at 4% takes 145 years to pay off,
once again BEFORE INTEREST AND COMPOUNDING. The only conclusion you can come
to is Bankruptcy or raping the purchasing power of the currency. You can bet
on the latter option. The US is headed the way of Rome.
The second way currencies and money is created is through STERILIZATION, and
although this is very STIMULATIVE, it does not borrow from the future. In fact,
it pays for the future with the borrowings from the G7 central banks. How does
this work? Since Alan Greenspan began the great experiment with fiat money
and credit creation, the US has exported more and more dollars represented
by the budget and trade deficits. This number has now grown to over $800 billion
dollars a year. When the US ships the money overseas to pay for their purchases
the central banks of the receiving country are FORCED to take the dollars and
print an equivalent amount of them in the local currency to pay the exporter
of the products to the United States.
Otherwise their currencies would SKYROCKET against the US dollar and the dollar
would collapse against the local currency. So they MUST do this or destroy
their export competitiveness in a world where commerce is now GLOBAL in nature.
It is self preservation. The receiving country central bank then accumulate
reserves which are insurance against financial crisis, and their exporters
still get paid for their goods. This is a double blessing as the central bank
is now much better backed in respect to the reserves and the exporter is thriving
and getting paid allowing him to expand his business while maintaining his
export competitiveness. The citizens in this economy are rewarded in many ways,
jobs are plentiful and always expanding and their central banks are always
more reliable in preserving the purchasing power of their currencies are they
are continually being backed by more and more reserves.
IN conclusion: As you can now see this is a CRACK UP BOOM written across the
globe, as currencies are now backed by NOTHING! Think about it, emerging central
banks reserves are backed by currencies of countries which are BANKRUPT, both
morally (currency creation through debt on the public) and fiscally (they have
sent so many IOUs overseas ie "dollars" and borrowed so much money "bond issuance",
and promised entitlements "Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc which cannot
be paid). Public servants as socio and psycho paths, with no regard to history.
Blindly printing however much money that is required to manipulate their "something
for nothing" constituents.
Politicians/public servants are absolutely in control of every central bank
in the world regardless of the words and methods they use to FOOL you into
thinking they are independent. If you think they are independent just think
of Ronald Reagan telling Paul Volker to plunge the economy into recession as
quickly as possible to get the pain of purging inflation from the economy as
over as quickly as possible, or check the visitors log at the White house over
the last 20 years and look at how often Greenspan and now Bernanke visited
their masters (once or twice a week) over the last 20 years.
Do you think the Chinese central bank is independent of the Mandarins in Beijing?
Or how about Putin in Russia? The answer is NO. Do you think emerging world
central banks would print Yuan, rubles, real, rupees, Dirhams, etc. to buy
US dollars and protect the purchasing power of their existing holdings of dollars
from going into freefall? Do you think that might explain how their dollar
reserve holdings are RISING faster than their trade surpluses would indicate?
The answer to both questions is YES. The emerging world MUST devalue their
currencies FASTER then the US or risk having their currencies GO THROUGH the
ROOF, and destroy their export competitiveness. They actually must devalue
their own currencies even faster as the economic growth prospects of their
economies are far in excess of the INCREASINGLY socialist G7. Capital is naturally
flowing to the areas with the most GROWTH POTENTIAL!
The G7 is no different, central bankers serving at the whim of their political
masters. The world has learned Greenspans formula well, but they like he have
forgotten history or failed to learn it. This madness has many years to run
as the broad public is paddling so hard as to not to have much time to really
understand what is going on. Politicians, public servants and central bankers
are MASTERS of creating inflation and confiscating wealth through FIAT currency
and credit creation, and slaves to deflation as it is something they cannot
control. So the policy forever is INFLATION, and because they have been so
irresponsible for the last 10 years the inflation is now outside their grasp
as to really tighten, normalize interest rates (interest payments in EXCESS
of inflation) or reign in liquidity GARANTEES the collapse of the worlds "ASSET
BACKED" financial and monetary systems. So its "EASY MONEY FOREVER", realize
it and thrive! Or believe inflation will subside and be severely harmed in
preserving your wealth! It is an unfolding "CRACK UP BOOM" and the only safe
harbor for FIAT cash is the indirect exchange provided by stuff such as commodities
and business enterprises. An inflationary boom of EPIC proportions is about
to go into HIGH GEAR! If you would like help in capturing some of the opportunities
in the CRACK UP BOOM as the unfold contact me through the website www.TraderView.com
The final edition of the "CRACK UP BOOM" series will be released next week
don't miss it. If you enjoyed this commentary, send it to a friend or subscribe
its free at www.Traderview.com.
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