Doug Carey on the Future - high inflation!

THE GREATER DEPRESSION AND WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ABOUT IT

July1, 2008 Daily Reckoning by Doug Casey
All over the world, but especially in the U.S., currencies are being inflated radically; M3 is rising at about 18% per year. Without exception, interest rates eventually reflect inflation. Therefore interest rates are going to rise radically. Governments are currently suppressing rates by lending money cheaply and promiscuously, to keep both borrowers and commercial lenders from going under. But rates are soon going to explode –especially long-term rates. My guess is that we’ll see at least the levels of the early ’80s, which would mean 15%+ for long-term Treasury bonds. And I’ll say that’s coming within a couple or three years at the outside.

The government wants low rates, obviously, because low rates make it a lot easier for homeowners to pay their mortgages, among other things. But they forget that low rates also discourage saving – which is the one thing that can actually bring down real rates. Officialdom is between a rock and a hard place, and they’re choosing to inflate the currency, hoping to stave off an epidemic of bankruptcy among consumers who borrowed and among the financial institutions that did the lending. The effort will fail and both groups will go bankrupt, simply because the whole society has been living above its means. That will result in large-scale commercial bankruptcies and unemployment.

Higher interest rates will absolutely hammer the economy.