PRESS RELEASE
Hyperinflationary Process Proceeds;
Denial Persists; Reality Will Out
Dec. 29, 2010 (EIRNS)—From heating oil, to metals and food commodities, speculation is proceeding at hyperinflationary rates, as waves of bail-out funds course into international banks, with the Federal Reserve in the lead as lender-of-last-resort. In the midst of this unrestricted flow, with no curbs on speculation, and low borrowing rates, commodity futures trading is going wild. Yet the line continues, put forward by Ben—Bubbles—Bernanke, that, the printing presses must roll for QE3, in order to counter the "lack of inflation!"
A snapshot view as of the last week of the year, shows the reality of the hyperinflationary process underway. Overall, there was a 15-percent increase in the Commodities Research Board (CRB) Index for the year, after a 10-percent drop in the first six months. Copper prices hit a record high this week. Soy and oil hit a two-year peak, with oil breaking $91 a barrel. Corn and wheat futures have jumped more than 40 percent over 2010. Cotton has jumped 35 percent just since September. Gold is above $1,400 an ounce. U.S. heating oil futures (January delivery) jumped up 9 percent during the month of December alone, ending up 19 percent for the year. Other basic commodities are likewise being bid up.
Inside the Fed, there are a few voices of "concern," but, not surprisingly, no one at all is talking about the implications of the blow-out of the European Monetary Union, let alone the Jan. 1 timetable that LaRouche has emphasized. One well-placed source in the Fed system reported that no one will take up the implications of the nearly unlimited flow of Fed funds. The 14-day, 1-month, and 3-month credit lines, which are being opened to the banks, with no ceiling on what is going out, are not being repaid by the banks. They are simply rolled over, again and again. The ECB, he said, is at the limit politically of the bailout funds it can issue, which is far less than what is needed, so it all comes back to the Fed.
In Scandinavia, there are a few expressions of dissent against London's bailout policy. The Swedish Central Bank has raised the repo rate four times since July, even though official inflation is below the bank's 2 percent target. And Finland's Nordic Investment Bank wrote in its Dec. 17 newsletter that central banks have worsened the problem of asset price bubbles by keeping interest rates low: "Rates are low and the central banks are 'printing money' while virtually all prices, except the consumer prices in industrial countries [through statistical tricks], are increasing rapidly."
Today in Germany, even the official statistics countered Bernanke's fraud. The Federal Destatis reported that consumer prices rose by 1 percent just since October in Germany. By Eurostat methods, the rise was 1.2 percent, two-thirds of it accounted for by a 4.5 percent rise in prices for motor fuel and heating oil. In New England, consumer prices for heating oil have risen each week of December, with two more months of Winter ahead. Another example of Bernanke's "lack of inflation."
