What explains the present hard asset investment boom?
*Financial Times, by John Dizard, September 4, 2006:
"The aspect of Austrian economics that will be central to investment
decision-making this autumn is the role of central banking in
generating unsustainable investment booms and subsequent busts.
The biggest world investment boom in history, which we have been going
through for the past decade, is becoming a bust, most notably in the US
housing market.
If the founding Austrians had Marxists and Keynesians as their
opposition theorists, the present-day Austrians have Alan Greenspan and
Ben Bernanke and their enablers in the US political system.
While the profit motive is central to the Austrian economic model, what
really motivates the practitioners is the prospect of being able to say
“I told you so”, which is much more satisfying than merely getting rich.
What they have been telling the so-far uninterested public is that the
Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates below the “natural
rate”, or what an unconstrained set
of lenders would be able to charge borrowers, given what the borrowers
could earn on the new capital.
The Fed, with the encouragement and support of the political class,
kept rates low so as continually to postpone financial busts over the
past decade and a half.
This has led to over-investment, from the technology bubble to the
housing bubble, with one bubble obligingly taking over from the
previous bubble. Now there are no bubbles left to blow."
*This information is solely a highlight of the opinion of a third-party publication and is incomplete. Please subscribe to this publication for the full and timely opinion of the author and call a Monex Account Representative for any additional up-to-date information. This is not an offer to buy or sell precious metals. Investors should obtain advice based on their own individual circumstances and understand the risk before making any investment decision.
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