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Marc Faber on the U.S. dollar and stimulus
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Gloom, boom, and doomster Marc Faber made the rounds yesterday talking about the future of the U.S. dollar and the news wasn't good - something about its value going to zero, over time, in this talk with Ricky Cash at Bloomberg
He's still clearly in the "hyperinflation" camp, but not just yet because of the near-term oversold condition for the U.S. currency.
On Bernanke: "He's a money printer. He does that well."
At Reuters the topic of discussion is the U.S. economic stimulus program where the prognosis is not good either - something about government spending being inherently inefficient at getting an economy going again and ultimately leading to much higher levels of debt and then much higher interest rates.
You have to wonder whether there's anyone in the Obama administration who pays any attention to this sort of commentary.
7 comments:
Tim,
I think you need a pair of glasses and you must not watch Bloomberg much. You referred to the lady host as "Ricky Cash." Her name is not Ricky Cash, LOL. The segment is called "Risky Cash."
BTW, I am a federal worker, so you may call me biased in reference to the discussion above regarding the pay disparity between federal vs. private industry workers. Without disclosing too much about myself, I will just say that someone in the private sector with my educational and job experience, in conjunction with my job responsibility, probably makes significantly more in pay. I will agree that the fed pay has made up some ground in recent years, but only because the calculated "average" of private sector pay has been stagnating because of an ever increasing minimum wage and low paying service jobs. The data used in this study is not comparing apples to apples. In addition, you have to realize that the average fed employee is much older than the private sector employee, which account for some of the disparity since the fed employees do stay with the gov't a long time and those 2% raises do add up, but yet does not even keep up with inflation. The critical problem is not that the fed employees make too much money because most don't, but why is so many people in the private sector making minimum wage or barely making a living.
Anyway, this is another case of "liars figure and figures lie" in my opinion.
Sam in MD
That is funny - Ricky Cash.
I'd be curious to know how you reconcile the $41,000 worth of benefits which, to me, was the more stunning number.
Thinking back to my last job, which paid pretty well, I don't think my benefits were more than $15k or $20K.
Private sector employees don't have the luxury of having their pay collected from taxpayers under threat of imprisonment.
Fed employee benefits is another area that is widely misunderstood. When I worked in the private sector, my "practical" benefits were better and my wife's current benefits are better in my opinion. Let me explain.
Most of those benefits are nice to have just in case, but in most instances, you never "realize" any benefit at all. I'm talking about long-term insurance and life insurance. They cost a lot to insure, but we rarely "collect" on those benefits. Besides, most major employers offer those benefits.
What's important is health and dental benefits and the fed offering in this regard is inferior to what's available in much of the corporate world. In fact, for several years, I declined my federal health and dental benefits and used my wife's benefits from her employer, which was superior.
I just checked to see the "value" of my benefits and it was about 27% of my pay. So, using the figure of $79,197 average fed pay from the "Daily Bail" (assuming that's accurate, which I don't), the average benefit value is about $21K, not $41K, and not that much different from your 15K-20K so many years ago (was it 5yrs ago, if my memory serves?).
Sam in MD
We left the cubicle world about three years ago. There's something not right about that $41K figure...
Tim,
I forgot to add that my pay is significantly more than the average of $79K cited by Cato, yet my benefits value is a lot less than the $41K average. So, something is amiss with CATO's calculations. Their numbers are miscalculated or fabricated. I would like to see where they get the raw data because if they are right, I'm missing out on some benefits...
Do you realize that CATO institute is a libertarian organization? I think they have an agenda, don't you?
BTW, last time I commented on your site, I had asked you if you were ready to short this market. Well, obviously that was a head fake. After the last two days, I'm wondering if we are in another one? FWIW, I'm as bearish on this market as you are, and I have been at this game a long time and if this a genuine bull market, I will eat my hat.
It's just a matter of time.
Sam in MD
The numbers come from the Commerce Department. I didn't check on the chart vs. the source data but I'm going to have a look sometime in the next day or two.
Yes, I'm ready to short - have been since July. Will I? Dunno.
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