For investors, Bernanke comes out very well as the man who saved the
financial system. Why did we have a financial crisis in the first place?
Because the central bankers, mostly the Fed in the US but also the Bank
of England and incidentally, also in Canada and Australia, they paid no
attention to excessive credit growth, and so you end up with an
over-leveraged system and with boundless speculation in financial
assets.
Then the crisis happens and they print money, and everybody applauds. Of
course, they applaud the funds manager because the water level in the
bathtub has increased by money printing. The asset values of portfolios
go up and the fees fund managers earn also go up. So they’re all very
happy.
But the man on the street, he’s a little bit less happy because his wage
is going up less than the cost of living increases. In real terms, he’s
losing out. That’s why, if you look at, say, corporate profits, they
are extremely elevated in the United States as a percent of the economy.
On the other hand, wages and salaries as a percent of the economy are at
record lows. So you have, essentially, through money printing, created
financial wealth and impoverished the working class, like you and me.
Contrarian Investor Dr.Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.
