Maybe it’s because it’s nearly Halloween.
But it does seem like it’s been a more peculiar week in financial news than most.
You might say, it’s almost like the mainstream financial universe stepped through some sort of looking glass into the realms of previously taboo topics.
Last week, for example, it was definitely not okay to be rampaging that the Fed was a Ponzi or that the entire precious metals market could be rigged — at least on public record (unless you were perhaps Jim Rogers, or any of the other uber bears).
But in what seems like the premier instalment of Tales from the Financial crypt, we’ve had:
1) Pimco’s Bill Gross calling Fed policy a ‘brazen’ ‘Ponzi scheme’.
2) GMO’s Jeremy Grantham talking about the ‘Night of the living Fed’.
3) The CFTC’s Bart Chilton calling for a potentially massive inquiry into alleged global silver price manipulation.
4) Marc Faber highlighting QE2 only opens the door to QE3, QE5 et cetera.
5) Bloomberg columnist Mark Gilbert calling the Fed insane.
6) The special inspector general for TARP suggesting the US Treasury fiddled its numbers on the AIG bailout’s costs.
7) President of the Kansas Fed Thomas Hoenig calling more QE ‘a bargain with the devil’.
And not to be forgotten:
The US slipping to a historic low in the global corruption index.
Hmm… what gives?
In the tones of the Twilight Zone: Dooo, do, dooo, do, dooo, do, dooo, do, dooo, do.
Related links:
Why investor letters have done apocalyptic on the Fed – Business Insider
These are the voyages of the starship QE2 – FT Alphaville
Everyone’s an Albert these days – FT Alphaville
ECB Bini Smaghi: “Illusion” That Policy Can Fix Crisis – WSJ