Money Metals' macro analyst, reporter, and Money Metals's Midweek Memo host Mike Maharrey appeared on the Bryan Hyde Show to talk about monetary malfeasance and the trajectory of the U.S. economy.
Mike and Bryan started their conversation talking about price inflation and the Federal Reserve's feckless inflation fight. Bryan asked, how did we get to the point where our dollar is buying less and less?
Mike said most people miss the answer because they are so focused on the short-term movements of the markets and what central bankers said today.
"Don't look at what these people are saying. Look at what they're doing. And in order to do that, you need to go back in time."
Mike said the monetary malfeasance goes back to Ben Bernanke's decision to run quantitative easing during the Great Recession, and even further to Alan Greenspan's rate cuts after the dot-com bubble popped.
"It's not that complicated. It's a matter of the reality that the Federal Reserve, the central bank, in order to prop up the federal government's borrowing and spending has put more and more dollars into circulation. It's really simple. I think anybody can understand that if you have a thing and you make more of that thing, it becomes less valuable because there is more of it. Well, that's exactly what's happening to your money."
Rising prices are the result of monetary inflation.
"The powers that be are going to obfuscate and point at other things. The popular thing right now is 'greedy' corporations are causing inflation. No. A greedy corporation could conceivably raise prices for a short amount of time, but that's not inflation."
Mike explains how the government and its enablers in the mainstream media have created a great deal of confusion by redefining inflation as "rising prices. But rising prices are just a symptom of monetary inflation.
"When you really understand that the root of the problem is monetary inflation, well, then there's nobody else to point to. Who does the monetary inflation? It's the Federal Reserve. It's the U.S. government. It's not greedy corporations. It's not 'Putin's price hikes,' it's not a pandemic, it's not voodoo, it's not unicorns. It is the Federal Reserve and the federal government. That's who you should blame."
Is this sustainable?
"I use this analogy. They're kicking the can down the road. And you can kick the can down the road for a long time. But at some point, you're going to run out of road."
In the second segment, Mike and Bryan talked about what might happen when the can reaches the end of the road. Mike talks about the rise of the BRICs economic block, de-dollarization, the potential for the dollar to lose its status as the reserve currency and the ramifications of a central bank digital currency.
About the Author:
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for MoneyMetals.com with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
