– Jim Grant On Gold’s Recent Drop: “Confidence In Bernanke Is Utterly Misplaced” (ZeroHedge, May 9, 2013):
“Inflation is a state of affairs in which there is too much money,” Jim Grant notes in this Bloomberg TV interview, however, “It’s not too much money chasing too few goods,” he corrects the misnomer, “the thing this money chases is variable.” Whether it is Iowa farmland, housing, stocks, or bonds, central banks are stuffing us with it. Yes, equities are high, but Grant explains, “beneath the surface of things or not so far beneath the surface of things,” it is not at all good, adding that, “Central bank ‘original sin’,” is akin to Revolutionary France, and he shows no concerns over Gold’s recent dip, noting “a general fatigue animus towards gold,” that seems predicated on more confidence in central bankers; to Grant, “that confidence is utterly misplaced!”
On Inflation:
Inflation is a state of affairs in which there is too much money. It’s not too much money chasing too few goods. It’s too much money, the thing that this money chases is variable. And in this particular cycle and for some time, it has chased commercial real estate, bonds, stocks, financial assets of all kinds. Iowa farm land. There is a huge excess of liquidity in the world. Central banks furnish this, they stuff us with it. In the interest of levitating markets that will, they think
On the Equity rally:
Yes there are terrific companies generating terrific cash flows. That is certainly true. But beneath the surface of things or not so far beneath the surface of things, as far as central banks, practicing not original policies but original sin. This is these policies are not so original. They go back to the time of Revolutionary France. You know the idea of creating currency with which to create human happiness is as old as the hills.
On Gold:
Gold has been in a bull market for 12 years. Gold is this rare thing in which you can be bullish and yet contrary and also with the trend. There is I think a general fatigue animus towards gold. The gold prices are reciprocal of the world’s view of the competence of central banks. The greater the world’s confidence in the Ben Bernanke’s of the world, the weaker the gold market. The less the world holds confidence in the institution of managed currencies, the stronger the gold market. And to me the confidence is utterly misplaced,