Five Out of Five Pessimists Agree: QE3 Is Coming

Associated Press

Getting that helicopter warmed up

How’d you spend your weekend? Some of the biggest (and most bearish) guns in economic and market prognostication put their heads together at a small confab on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire this past weekend. In attendance: David Blanchflower, formerly of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England; Swiss doom-and-gloomer Marc Faber; Fred Hickey, the bearish editor of the High-Tech Strategist newsletter; Morgan Stanley exec Stephen Roach; and economic forecasters David Rosenberg, Nouriel Roubini and Gary Shilling.
Their conclusion: QE3 is gonna happen! Ed Yardeni, who was there, had this little insider snippet for readers of his daily newsletter (emphasis is MarketBeat’s):

The conversations were spirited with lots of debates. The consensus was quite pessimistic about the outlook for the US and global economies.

Everyone seemed to agree that the Fed would most likely leave the federal funds rate at zero for a long time and that a third round of quantitative easing is likely later this year. David Blanchflower, who is a former member of the MPC of the BoE, is in favor of QE-3.0. The rest of us were against it. Most agreed that it would probably boost stock and commodity prices again, though not as much as QE-2.0.

So rev up those engines. As far as these guys are concerned, the Fed chairman is warming up that helicopter as we speak.