Time to Send the Money Crooks Off to Jail

Andy Snyder|May 4, 2022

Should it be jail time for Jay Powell?

Is it time to send the money crooks around the world off to the pokey… to do some hard time for their wrongdoings?

America is in a world of hurt. Stocks have suffered some of their biggest losses in our lifetimes. Inflation is roaring. And the hopes of a “soft landing” are dying along with the buying power of the dollars in our wallet.

And yet… there are no consequences.

Those in charge won’t be put on trial. They won’t be forced to answer to us all. Their names will be associated with their crimes only until they pompously hand the keys to their crime ring to the next guys.

It got little press last week, but the head of the International Monetary Fund made a shocking confession.

Central banks “printed too much money and didn’t think of the unintended consequences.”

Don’t gasp just yet. IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva continued to blab to the folks from CNBC…

We did recognize that maybe [there would be] too much money in circulation and too few goods, but [we] didn’t really quite think through the consequence in a way that… would have informed better what we [should] do.

Really?

Are we really to believe that the folks in charge of the world’s money supply failed to think past the first step of printing massive amounts of money?

The bigger question is… are the people really going to let them get away with this crime?

At the very real risk of being crass… it’s all utter bullshit.

Look… we admit we’re half a bubble shy of being level. There are certainly sharper knives in the drawer than the fella who gets up early to write to you each day. But even we saw this coming long before the Fed’s printing press was even warmed up.

That the folks with PhDs in economics and such things could be so ignorant about the effects of what they were doing is simply stupid.

And to let them walk away from the crime is even more stupid.

But, alas, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Down and Under, Down Under

The poor folks in Australia got quite a shock yesterday.

The country’s Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, raised the country’s key cash rate by 25 basis points… far exceeding expectations and shocking the market.

Folks were right to be floored by the announcement.

Previously, Lowe had said record-low rates would remain in place through 2024. Despite clues of soaring prices poking him in the eye and flicking him on the nose, the money maestro said there was no runaway inflation in sight.

He was wrong.

The folks who measure such things now say Australian inflation will run at about 6% this year… twice its central bank’s upper limit.

“I expect that further increases in interest rates will be necessary over the months ahead,” Lowe conceded in a statement that’s as close to an admission of guilt as we’ll ever get.

Wealth plunged across the continent. What little trust folks still had eroded just as quickly.

Will there be consequences?

Nah, at least not for the folks in charge.

But for the average bloke in Australia? Oh yeah, he’s paying the fine.

Economies around the world are falling apart. Investors are losing incredible amounts of equity. And the future looks like a trap.

Will the folks in charge get us out?

Will they face the charges they deserve?

Nope…

Just the opposite.

They’ll be rewarded handsomely.

Last we heard, Ben Bernanke has been making as much as $400,000 per speech since leaving his post at the top of the Fed. And Janet Yellen has made at least $7 million from publicly discussing the crime ring she led.

It’s all backward.

And the little guy is paying the price.

More tomorrow…

Note: Everybody will be focused on the Federal Reserve later today. Don’t fall for it. We think the BIG meeting comes in June. That’s when the whole system could be rewritten. Our full thoughts are here.