25
Apr
2012
Here’s a Sentence I Never Thought I’d Blog
This is a link to Robert Wenzel’s prepared remarks for the speech he just gave to the NY Federal Reserve Bank. Let’s watch Wenzel’s blogging over the next few weeks and make sure he hasn’t been replaced.
I’m confused. So, he implies the Fed should have kept printing money at the same rate to avoid the downturn in 2008, but should stop printing money now? Or were his 2008 statements in the context of financial advice along the lines of “The Fed has finally stopped printing money so expect a recession sooner rather than later. Act accordingly.”
Either way, kudos to Wenzel for having the balls to deliver that closing. Ouch..
Here’s my understanding: Wenzel pays attention to money supply growth and uses it as a macro indicator. The basic idea being that an economy based on sound money does not require money supply growth, but an economy based on money supply growth does. Essentially, he is saying Bernanke was foolish, given his own approach to macro problems, to let it drop in 2008 and the timing of the crisis should be no mystery.
i.e. it’s a critique of Bernanke’s performance under a given strategy while not endorsing that particular strategy
@Mike, RW essentially says that the Fed can do one of two things:
1 – Continuously print money which leads to a price-inflation bubble in the long-run.
OR
2 – Stop printing money and pop the bubble.
He calls out which of the two above options the fed is doing in real-time. Neither option is beneficial to the economy. Only eliminating the fed can end this cycle.
Mr. Wenzel has his keen eye on what REALLY matters – “If nothing else, does anyone at the Fed know the quality and fineness of the gold at Fort Knox?”
He’s alluding to the allegations that dummy gold is in the vault which begs the question, “where did the gold go and who authorized it going?”
Wha … they … let him give a talk there?
My thoughts exactly, Silas.
“Hey you, Austrian economist. You wanna come take a sh!t at our Federal Reserve function? We’ll even give you free dinner.”
Is there any evidence that this talk even took place?
You would would think maybe even one of the attendees would make a comment on his website.
I’m calling bs on this.
Wenzel gives an afterword, including a discussion of the Q&A at mises.org here (scroll down to “Afterword”):
http://mises.org/daily/6028/New-York-Fed-Leave-the-Building
Ebeling responds here:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/04/fed-does-not-live-on-this-planet.html
If the transcript of the supposed speech is all there is to prove this event happened, I am afraid I have to agree with Marc that this is BS.
I mean at least show a copy of the invitation email with the names blurred out as evidence that this event was even purposed as he states. There seems to be no real proof that this happened except for the “prepared remarks” and some vague discussion about a Q and A session.
I am very interested to learn more about Robert Wenzel and this supposed speech. Does anyone have any proof that this event took place, except for the “evidence” of his prepared remarks?