|
[We are far away from an internet connection and don't intend to be near one for at least a few days, so, today,
as Fed Chief Ben Bernanke
makes his highly anticipated Jackson Hole speech - with the fate of
the world in his tiny little hands - all I can leave you with
is this look back at when President
Barack Obama nominated Bernanke
for another term at the Fed, virtually guaranteeing that the price of gold would continue skyward. For reasons that should be
clear when looking at the graphic below, I've been calling the Fed Chief "Golden" Ben Bernanke
for some time - his
original nomination in 2005 was
what finally got gold past the $500 mark
and, since then, there's been no looking back. Originally appearing here back on August
25, 2009 here's a look back at the Golden boy's re-nomination including a gold price prediction that, today, seems surprisingly modest.]
ooo
President Obama made it official this morning by nominating Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term as reported by MarketWatch.
In a short statement
in Martha’s Vineyard
with Bernanke standing at his side,
Obama said Bernanke’s
background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression.
“Ben approached
a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and outside-the-box
thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic
free fall,” Obama said.
…
In a brief statement, Bernanke said the goals of his second term at the central bank will be fostering
stable economic conditions and financial
markets. “We have
been bold or deliberate
as circumstances demanded,
but our objective remains
constant: to restore a more stable economic and financial environment in which opportunity can again flourish,”
Bernanke said.
“Mr. President,
I commit today to you and
to the American people that, if confirmed
by the Senate, I will work to the utmost of my abilities — with my colleagues
at the Federal Reserve
and alongside the Congress
and the Administration — to help provide a
solid foundation for growth and prosperity in an environment of price stability.”
While Bernanke may
face some testy questioning during his confirmation hearings this fall, a result of last year’s bait-and-switch bank rescue package and other questionable dealings with giant Wall Street firms while standing at the side of former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank
Paulson at the Treasury Department, approval for a second term is a virtual lock.
This is good news
for financial markets in general and will likely spur even
higher prices for many commodities, one commodity in particular.
You see, Ben Bernanke has been a veritable one-man gold price appreciation machine.
References to the government’s printing press earlier in the decade and his eagerness to use it as Fed
chairman apparently have a way
pushing the gold price higher.
Since his initial nomination in 2005, when gold was trading at
only about $465 an ounce,
the yellow metal has more
than doubled, besting just about any other asset
class during that time, so gold bugs should welcome today’s news.
Let’s just hope that the next four years are as good as the last four – $2,000 an ounce gold in the year 2013 when it comes
time for his next re-nomination sounds about
right to me.
|
