July/August 2010 Comment:

With the U.S. recovery (what recovery?) running out of steam, rumors are that Ben Bernanke and Company at the Fed are looking to ignite another round of quantitative easing. On the surface, the rumblings are made to sound as if they are meant to kick-start the economy, but the real reason could be another build-up of unmarketable debt in the commercial banks. Since most of the original quantitative easing ended up as a circuitous bailout of the federal government, one wonders at the real intent in any further Fed debt purchases.

Ambrose Evans Pritchard, one of the better commentators on the global economic scene, recently wrote of a senior economist at the Richmond Federal Reserve who believes that only those who have taken PhD level classes can add meaningfully to the discussion on economic policy. This statement provoked a howl from far and wide, as well as this cartoon from our friend, Ed Stein.

Said Evans-Pritchard in his inimitable style: "The 20th century was a horrible litany of absurd experiments and atrocities committed by intellectuals, or by elite groupings that claimed a higher knowledge. Simple folk usually have enough common sense to avoid the worst errors. Sometimes they need to take very stern action to stop intellectuals leading us to ruin."

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