NEWS RELEASE - Global equities saw their sharpest fall since the 2008 financial crisis on what's being referred to as "Black Monday" - as an 8% rout in Chinese shares sparked worldwide panic.
The Dow plunged over 6% (over 1,000 points) at the start of Monday trading but recovered from its steepest losses in late morning trading. Investors however remain fearful of an ongoing, China-led global economic slowdown.
Today's sudden market volatility comes as no surprise to those who have read Craig Smith and Lowell Ponte's latest book, DON'T BANK ON IT!, or any of their previous five books or ten white papers on the subject in recent years.
The U.S. stock market has been "levitated" and "rigged" by the Fed's zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) as "easy money enriched many stock market speculators in the casino of Wall Street, which has gone up while the real business economy wallowed or declined," write Smith and Ponte in DON'T BANK ON IT! (page 90). "The Fed has been a pusher, willing and able to give the stock market its needed fix of easy money."
Smith and Ponte warned to watch out once the Fed's quantitative easing ended, "After four years of relentless Fed stimulus, the asset-inflated stock market bubble is four thousand points higher, despite a lackluster economic recovery that is slower even than that following the Great Depression...At some point gravity wins out."
"The stock market has been high on and addicted to a drug that most economists know is now doing more harm than good," write Smith and Ponte.
"What happens when the Federal Reserve loses its stranglehold over debt markets? Investors are finding out," reports Bloomberg News. "'The world economy is like an ocean liner without lifeboats,' economists at HSBC Bank wrote in a recent research note," reports Wall Street Journal.
"The biggest bank heist in history began on December 16, 2008 amidst the uncertainty and fear of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The heist began with the Federal Reserve's Zero Interest Rate Policy, that has been used to take trillions from some and give it to others - especially to the giant banks and the government itself," write Smith and Ponte in their 2015 white paper THE BIGGEST BANK HEIST IN HISTORY!
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar fell sharply against the euro and other major currencies Monday as bets dwindled that the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates next month for the first time in nearly a decade.
Mr. Smith's financial advice for confused investors is to never buy or sell in a panic; instead wait for the dust to settle to make needed portfolio adjustments.
Regardless of whether stocks recover from today's global sell-off, "now is a time to keep your powder dry," says Smith. That means going to cash and cash equivalents. "Through all the volatility one asset class has kept its cool, GOLD - because gold is the anti-dollar. Gold is on a long-term trajectory to overtake the dollar as the rightful center of the currency universe," writes Smith in his newest special report, WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DOLLAR?.
To schedule an interview with Craig R. Smith or Lowell Ponte, contact: Bronwin Barilla at 800-950-2428 or email bkbarilla@dontbankonitbook.com.
