Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Steve Ricchiuto, Chief Economist, Mizuho Securities USA
Increasingly, the Federal Reserve appears to be telling Americans: don’t believe your lying eyes — or ears.
Yesterday afternoon, Steve Ricchiuto, Chief U.S. Economist at Mizuho Securities USA, gave a gutsy interview on CNBC where he called into further question the Fed’s kooky talk of an accelerating economy that needs a rate hike to rein it in. Ricchiuto has a Masters Degree in Economics from Columbia University – one of those pesky, street smart guys who know a load of bull when he hears it and doesn’t mind telling you so.
Ricchiuto had this to say on CNBC:
“The deflation story is very, very critical but there’s also this wrong concept that I keep hearing over and over again in the financial press about this acceleration in economic growth. That isn’t happening. Last month we had a horrible retail sales number. We had a horrible durable goods number. We’re likely to have a very disappointing retail sales number coming forward. This month we’ve had a strong payroll number – we say everything’s great. It’s not great. It’s running where it’s been. It’s been the same thing for the last five years. There’s no improvement in the economy.”
Where is the financial press getting the idea “about this acceleration in economic growth”? From the Fed, of course. In its last monetary policy statement on January 28, the Federal Open Market Committee assured all of us that “economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace” with “strong job gains.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is the same central bank that didn’t see the greatest crash since the Great Depression stampeding at us in 2007 or early 2008.
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