Wednesday, September 29, 2010

We Interrupt Our Scheduled Programming...

So, I've been on a roll with stock picking, but this one just came up.  Oddly, the title of the piece is "The Fed Makes And Mints Money" at the same time, my browser's heading says "dont-audit-the-fed-thank-it!" or something close. 

In the story, Daniel Gross, "the economics editor and columnist at Yahoo! Finance" explains, correctly, that the Fed has made substantial, reasonably stable payments to the Treasury since its formation.  You should remember, the Fed controls several near monopolies.  The Treasury taxes these businesses at 100%. 

The Fed processes checks. The Fed distributes currency.  The Fed stores gold for foreign governments.  Oh, and the Fed conducts "open market operations."  (In simple terms, think of that as insider trading in US government bonds...a very profitable activity!!)


Daniel Gross sounds like a 2007 vintage Bear Stearns/Lehman/AIG shareholder!  "Thanks guys!  You made me a lot of money, keep it coming!"  He should be asking, like a responsible shareholder: "Are the risks involved in these significantly greater profits justified?"

Remember, we don't have the other option equity holders usually have: "My God!  Sell this thing before everyone else understands what's going on!"

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