Celente: Fed’s ‘Monetary Methadone’ Causing ‘The Greatest Depression’

Trends Journal publisher Gerald Celente gave a rather stark interview Friday in which he said central banks around the world are causing “The Greatest Depression,” and that we’ve already passed Stage 1 as unrest builds in more and more countries.

Celente, speaking with Kitco News, first commented on the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate cut, the third since July — and third since 2008 — essentially calling it a big mistake for everyone but stock traders and companies with massive corporate debt.

“It’s positive for the equity markets and the huge debt that corporations are taking in to keep expanding. But on the negative end, they’re just building more debt into the already over $250 trillion debt bubble,” he said. “So what it is, I call it ‘monetary methadone;’ they’re just shooting in more money to keep the addicted bull running. It’s not boosting economies around the world — we’re looking at a global slowdown.

“The IMF, the World Bank, one after another are warning of a recession.”

Celente then pointed out that billionaire Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio has been following what Trends Journal has written about the beginning of the gold bull run, and how he came out a couple of weeks later and said he is bullish on gold.

“This is the head of the largest hedge fund in the world and then just a few weeks ago, he said now he’s worried about a Great Depression,” Celente said. “So the people see it and it’s just artificially being boosted by central banks injecting more cheap money, lowering interest rates, and now we have the Federal Reserve — we’re not going to call it ‘quantitative easing,’ we’re going to make up another story.

“We’re pumping in $60 billion a month to buy Treasurys — oh and by the way, $120 billion a day into the repo markets.”

Celente went on to say that what the Fed is doing is “only temporary” and the crash won’t be held off forever.

“You’re seeing housing sales go back up, mortgage refis go back up because the money is cheap,” he said. “But the earnings aren’t there, the debt levels for the consumers are getting heavier and heavier, so it’s artificially propping it up just like it did since the panic of ’08. It hasn’t filtered back to society, it’s only gone to the 1%. And I’m not making that number up. You have three people in the United States, (Jeff) Bezos, (Warren) Buffett and (Bill) Gates, who have more money than half of America’s population.

“And then you go around the world and, according to OxFam, what do they have? Twenty-six people have more dough than half the world’s population combined. So, no, it’s not working. It’s only making it worse.”

So where should investors go to protect their wealth?

“I call it the guns, gold and the getaway plan,” Celente quipped after saying he’s no financial adviser. “Speaking for only myself, gold is the No. 1 investment, and I’ve been saying that since I began buying gold in 1970.”

Celente said he’s long on both physical gold and stocks, including the “IRA, the GLD ETFs.”

“I have some silver, but gold is my priority,” he added. “I have two-thirds gold.”

The host then mentioned uprisings in a number of countries around the world and asked what it all means, and Celente said it’s the beginning of “The Greatest Depression.”

“It’s signalling the people have had it. Again, the money’s gone to the 1%. When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it, and they’re losing it,” Celente said. “This is part of The Greatest Depression, it’s Stage 1, it’s already happened. Millions of people taking to the street, protesting that they don’t have enough money to live while they’re getting higher taxes, costing more for everyday living. So they’ve had it and this is extremely important: All these movements don’t have leaders. Whether it’s Hong Kong, whether it’s Spain, whether it’s Lebanon, what’s going on in Iraq with the massive demonstrations, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Columbia, one after another, no leaders because the people feel it. And this is part of the Greatest Depression.

“When we say it’s going to get worse, when The Great Depression hit, there were 2 billion people on the planet. We’ve added 5.5 billion more. They’re out of work, they’re living in poverty, violence all around them, corruption. So this thing is exploding.”