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"The Fed is irrelevant"

Have you been keeping a close eye on the Fed's moves? Did the recent 50 basis point cut in the fed funds rate shock or surprise you? Is the Fed doing the right thing?

Well, according to noted investor Jim Rogers, the Feds actions are likely to hasten the dollar's demise and will be disastrous for the markets and the nation's economic well being.

Excerpt from Bloomberg article:

Interest rate cuts by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will spur inflation, cause the U.S. dollar to collapse and push the world's largest economy into recession, investors Jim Rogers and Marc Faber said.

``Every time the Fed turns around to save its friends on Wall Street, it makes the situation worse,'' Rogers said in an interview from Shanghai. ``If Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he's doing already, yes we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar's going to collapse, the bond market's going to collapse. There's going to be a lot of problems in the U.S.''

Check out the Bloomberg video interview with Rogers as well (you'll also find that clip, and an interview with Marc Faber, in the "media on demand" portion of the above-linked article page).

Jim makes some interesting and pointed comments about the Fed's recent actions and the obsession with Fed-watching (an activity he regards as "irrelevant"). He also provides some good common sense, which the media no longer seems to possess to any degree.

And if you have any doubt about Rogers' prognosis for the US currency or his comments about the Fed, please have a glimpse of history and tell me how well our central bank has acheived its original mandate of providing "price stability" and a sound currency.

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