Nice point: QE is sterilized. No money printing that is not offset. Investors are always fooled by that.

And rather than being an empty suit, Greenspan is more like a con artist. He knows that bonds are in massive demand. He created the atmosphere of structured finance that guaranteed their massive demand.

Yes, we pretty much have that, continual asset inflation. But sometimes it doesn't work very well when mainstreet doesn't cooperate in the dirty plan. Then the banks, as Will Rogers said, have [an asset deflation] nightmare and the nation has to put them back into bed.

Wages would have to go up significantly to guarantee inflation. Without that, monetarism and asset inflation is just another tax on main street. I think monetarism can be helpful, but not always. Petroleum inflation may have helped create the crash, along with Fed tightening and destroying all subprime, even the good subprime, in 2007/2008. Once subprime was destroyed, banks were forced to take off balance loans onto their balance sheets, and HELOCs went away. That was the final straw for the economy, IMO. But high gas prices did not translate into prosperity.

I like the link to your home article, Gary. I just don't see much heating up of the economy, but Christmas season could tell us a lot.

Janet Yellen is the girl who cried wolf. Pretty soon people don't believe. Maybe if people boycott Christmas spending, the old gal will wake up. Americans need to take matters in their own hands and force the Fed to bolster the economy. That means, quit spending! By spending, you push the economy up just enough to make the Fed happy so it does nothing.

I think it is necessary to ban long bonds for use as collateral. Or at least ban the number of long bonds that can be used for collateral. Otherwise, the conundrum which is a planned conundrum, will be with us for as far as the eye can seen, and then some. And the economy will not be permitted to grow. Higher interest rates would, over time, motivate the banks to lend into the real economy. As it is it won't be happening and recovery will be at a snail's pace.

Again, inflation does up asset prices, and helps banks. But eventually it hurts the populace. But then, so does NIRP. As I have said before, helicopter money seems to be something that could be controlled if done right, and a little inflation would follow, without decimating the average Joe. The BOJ is just talk. It is comfortably numb.

I don't know if people remember the nowhere man in the Beatles movie the Yellow Submarine. He gobbled up everything, and eventually only he was left. And then he gobbled himself up. Well, the BOJ owns 60 percent of the ETF's in Japan and 33 percent of the bonds. If the BOJ nowhere man continues in this fashion, it will own too much of Japan. I understand the argument of asset buying as a means to prop up the banks and help them heal. But I am not so sure that the BOJ owning everything is the answer. Savings in Japan are decreasing, so I think helicopter money would stand a better chance than the dwarf star, Japan, owning all the assets on the planet!

Wasn't the end of QE a beginning of a reversal of monetary policy? It didn't send yields up. The conundrum is still in effect, IMO, Michael. But you are correct, Michael, we are not exactly overheating. If we were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, this 50 degree economy would be seen as overheating, or if we were on the moon. Come to think of it, that is where the Fed is currently.

You have a good point, except for one thing, Craig. Once cash is rejected, the temptation of governments is to allow most businesses to do away with cash. We already have enough of those. But grocery stores, and pawn shops and other shops would be overwhelmed by 1 dollar bills or a basket full of quarters.

Carol, thanks for the encouragement. They are brainwashing us, as the majority of the owned media is speaking with one voice. They pound the concept of cashlessness home with a continual deluge of articles and pronouncements, and the same is true for self driving cars.

These are both globalist pets, and control of the citizenry, and control of Russia are the primary goals of the globalists. You thought our nation was sovereign. If it was sovereign, bankers would be in jail by the thousands as they were in the Great Depression.

This statement should not be construed as support for Trump. There is nationalism and there is bad nationalism. Good nationalism is based on things like the Peace of Westfalia or Westphalia. Bad nationalism could come with bigotry and hatred.

Carol, poor people need cash. Travelers need cash. Hacked systems need cash as a backup. With all due respect, you have no idea what you are saying. Cashlessness is totalitarian in nature.