Federal Reserve

A couple days ago I explained that Bernanke's comments made it clear he planned to use Fed policy to boost Obama's chances to win the election. Peter Schiff goes into more detail.

"So we all agree that the prospect of inflationary depression was made worse by the Fed's actions – but at least Ben Bernanke has pleased his boss. As a guaranteed monetary dove, Ben Bernanke appears to be a shoo-in if Obama is re-elected.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has pledged to fire Bernanke if elected. While I am not confident that Mr. Romney has the economic understanding to appoint a competent replacement – let alone pursue a policy of restoring the gold standard or legalizing competing currencies – he may well be seen as a threat not only to the Fed Chairman's self-interest, but also to his inflationary agenda.
Given this background, let's look at Bernanke's quotes that have been the focus of media speculation for the past week: the US economy is "far from satisfactory," unemployment is a "grave concern," and the Fed "will provide additional policy accommodation as needed." These comments seem designed to reassure markets (and Washington) that there will be no major shift toward austerity in the near future. The party can go on. But they also hint that Bernanke might be planning to double down again. I have long written that another round of quantitative easing is all but inevitable. It now seems to be imminent.
In reality, when the money drops may have more to do with politics than economics. The Fed may not want to appear to be directly interfering in the election by stimulating the economy this fall, but there are strong incentives for Bernanke to try to perk up the phony recovery before November and deliver the election to Obama. However, if Romney wins, Bernanke can at least fall back on his appeal as a team player as he lobbies for another term."

There's no such thing as an independent Fed.

It looks like the Fed has secretly already started another round of money printing.

"If you look at their balance sheets, you will see that something is happening, assets are building on their balance sheets and they are not coming from the tooth fairy."

But this next idea is really scary.

"They probably have learned how to do things off balance sheet. I have nothing to confirm this but everyone else has learned how, so they probably have too. This is just a comment on human nature."

Rogers isn't the first to wonder that, but it's scary to see it published in a major newspaper.