The Eccles Building is absolutely crowded with highly-paid PhDs. Hundreds and hundreds of them work for the Federal Reserve.
Me?
I’m just a bozo with an opinion. And that opinion is anchored in words that you might expect to hear from the beauty products aisle at Whole Foods: words like organic, natural and healthy.
All my life, I’ve spouted the missives and musings of a doddering old man, writing about how there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and you can’t print your way to prosperity. But this bozo has no power over such things; just an opinion. And yet, $28 trillion in debt later, we wind up with results like this:
Now, I’m sure that those with a vested interest will point to the drop in the unemployment rate. After all, the video-sated, largely-empty-headed public isn’t going to need any morsel larger than that. The fact is that, even with all the “help” from the Fed, the delta between expectations (gold bar) and reality (blue bar) month after month is starting to show a pattern of disappointment.
To be sure, the unemployment rate has gone done sharply.
But at what cost?
The Fed has absolutely gorged itself to grotesque, Golden Corral levels, on asset acquisition, 99.9% to the benefit of Jerome Powell and his rich friends.
And what has the inorganic, unnatural interference of the government really done for the public?
Well, it’s convinced them not to work. So you’re saying the unemployment rate is 4.8%? What about the fact that nearly 40% of the adult population doesn’t bother? They’re just not participating.
I will say that my premium post (suggesting VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) calls) has gone from a great trade (65% overnight) to a fantastic trade (triple digit profits in two nights). I was very clear when I sold this yesterday that I was doing so based on being a complete wimp, and that the chart still look rock solid. 
As for the equity market in general – when you’re dealing with a totally inorganic, captured market, and you get big news it simply doesn’t know what to do with itself.
