Monday, September 01, 2008

The Fed on The Fed

Someone agrees with me about the Fed hurting its inflation-fighting mandate. And he works at the Fed! In an important job!

"The current stance of policy, while understandably calibrated for responding to the immediate financial crisis, will make it difficult to achieve our mandate for price stability over the longer term," Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said in remarks prepared for delivery at a central banking conference in Argentina.

He's a dissenting voice, so let's see if Helicopter Ben can keep a lid on him at the next FOMC meeting. One problem is that he focuses on core inflation, a Nixon-era politicized gimmick designed to fool people into thinking inflation is lower. His call for supervision of non-bank institutions is a harbinger of things to come. Look for this meme to sprout full-bloom after The Crash.

"To return to my analogy, this means doubling back across the river to a more historic central banking role, and making clear a future crossing would be rare," he added. "And we must accept that the credibility of such an assertion will depend critically on how future crises are handled."

Too late! We've already crossed the Rubicon (and that analogy is more potent given America's imperial pretenses). That "future crisis" is maybe a few weeks away, because as soon as Alt-A and prime mortgage delinquencies explode, the Treasury will have a heck of a time figuring out how to nationalize Phoney and Fraudie without collapsing the stock market. I don't see how they can succeed, which is why I'm out of U.S. equity indices and in gold.

Sure, I talk my book. Just like every investment professional should.