Thursday, July 28, 2011

Erin Burnett Calls The Federal Reserve A Ponzi Scheme


CNBC Video:  Erin Burnett - Aired January 8, 2010
Start watching at the 1:40 mark:
  • "We had to issue one-and-a-half trillion dollars of new debt last year, in 2009, in this country, just to finance the deficit.  Eighty percent of that debt was bought by the U.S. Federal Reserve which means ... I guess you could use the term Ponzi Scheme.  How long can we continue doing that?"
The banking apologista earns back some credibility as she quotes Bill Gross' January letter which points out (but you know this already) that the Federal Reserve purchased 80% of all US Treasury securities issued in 2009.
That is some extremely serious quantitative easing.  When we all wondered back in January of 2009 exactly who would be buying the mountain of debt on its way, no one I read anticipated the Fed stepping in and buying (monetizing) $1.2 trillion of the $1.5 trillion eventually sold.
It proves the point that the world has little appetite for our debt, and that interest rates will rise when the Fed stops buying.  Assuming of course that they actually have any plans to cease their inflationary charade.

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