This April 2009 post points to a fake recovery predicated on monetary and fiscal stimulus. What happens when the salve of stimulus and pro-cyclical agents wears thin? Then the deleveraging begins in earnest.

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Two weeks ago, the Fed roiled bond markets by signalling it would start to purchase Treasury bonds with printed money – the very definition of inflation.  
Now, its the ECB’s turn to show it can inflate with the best of them.  They have adopted extraordinary measures despite the view of many that they have not [...]

The following post is up on Morgan Stanley’s website and highlights the degree to which money printing has become the policy tool of choice used by central bankers with which to fight this deflationary threat. I have highlighted the whole paragraph on the inflationary risk of all of this.

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You probably saw this one already, but a pair of suspected narcotics traffickers threw gads of money from their car window while being pursued by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in a car chase in San Diego. Basically, it was free money for any other drivers willing to risk death picking up the money [...]

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This comes via the Financial Times.
The Swiss National Bank’s decision to intervene to weaken the franc has left currency investors with one less haven from the financial crisis.
Its move comes at a time when there are also questions surrounding the future haven status of two other leading currencies: the dollar and the yen.
While the dollar [...]

Quantitative easing is now the main policy course for the U.S. Federal Reserve. The U.S. Federal reserve is buying $300 billion in long-term U.S. government debt in order to keep interest rates low. As a result, the rally I in Treasuries that I have long anticipated is upon us – it is the most powerful rally I have ever witnessed.

As Marc Faber has said, “don’t underestimate the power of printing money.”

The U.S. dollar is getting hammered today. It is now trading near 1.34 to the euro, 1.42 to Sterling, 96 to the Yen and 1.14 to the Swiss franc. These are huge hockey stick style moves. from 1.30 to the euro, 1.39 to the pound, 98 to the yen and 1.18 to the Swiss franc just this morning. The dollar is getting killed here.

Apparently, the Swiss franc is too high — or so says the Swiss central bank. As a result, they are selling francs in the foreign exchange market to get the franc to come down. There has been a lot of speculation about the Swiss and their plans to devalue the Swiss franc, including on this site. It now seems clear that devaluation is where things are headed. On Feb 19th, I said as much:

Thirty years ago, it was “Anarchy in the U.K.” as Britain tried to get away from its role as the sick man of Europe. That meant civil unrest, high inflation and a weak economy. Margaret Thatcher was seen by many as the solution. Today, the British economy is sick again and there is anotherready solution to hand: quantitative easing a.k.a printing money:

Judging from recent events, the bond vigilantes are right to suspect that Ben Bernanke is all talk and no action when it comes to keeping long-term rates low. If you recall, I had actually believed the Fed would support bonds because it was concerned about long-term interest rates. This is part of the reason I believed that Treasuries would rise despite being in bubble territory but it looks unlikely.