While the country was distracted with the Covid-19 lockdown and economic crisis, the Federal Reserve made a huge banking requirement change never before done in history. The Fed cut “. . . reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions.” (Read for yourself here.) What does this profound change mean? Economist John Williams says, “The system is bankrupt, and they are just spending the money to prevent an immediate collapse as opposed to having it collapse right now. They have cut reserve rates back to 0%. The bailout of the banking system of the ‘Great Recession’ didn’t work. So, now, they are just printing money and bailing out whatever they have to. People have done this throughout history including the Weimar Republic (Germany hyperinflation) and Zimbabwe (also had hyperinflation). . . . We effectively have a Zimbabwe Fed.”
So, the Fed is going to print all the money it needs to bail out every bank that needs one? Williams says, “That’s exactly what they said they are going to do, and not only any bank, but any financial institution, the stock market, and with infinite money, you can do all sorts of things. But guess what? You also get a hyperinflation. They have crossed the line."
On the economy decimated by the forced Covid 19 lockdown, Williams, who is the founder of Shadowstats.com, computes data without all the accounting gimmicks to make things look better than they really are. Williams says, “We have about 40 million unemployed . . . which is about a 40% unemployment rate (using Shadowstats.com methods) and not 13% claimed by the government . . . . The pandemic collapsed economy took very heavy hits. The April numbers on industrial production had its worst drop in its 101 year history. The drop in April retail sales was the deepest drop in its 73 year history. That was a 60% to 80% contraction. . . . I think we are going to see a GDP contraction in the second quarter of about -50%. . . . April GDP is 50% down, and there you have the full effect of the collapse. . . . We will bottom out in the second quarter, and it might bottom bounce in third quarter, but it should start coming back in fourth quarter.”
