Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors

(Conspiracy Nation, 05/31/08) -- “Feed me!” cries Audrey II, the carnivorous plant in the 1986 movie, “Little Shop Of Horrors.” Coincidentally, the so-called “Federal” Reserve has been running its own Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors, feeding the carnivorous beast of inflation.

Things began innocently enough in December 2007, when Ben Bernanke, an employee of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors, began to nurture a small entity he called Term Auction Facility (TAF). It was to have been just a temporary policy. But then the TAF in the basement of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors began to grow. “Feed me!” it cried.

Ben Bernanke began bringing dubious-quality mortgage-backed collateral to TAF. TAF swallowed them whole, then excreted increasing amounts of cash.

But TAF kept growing exponentially. “TAF must be fed!” exclaimed Bernanke. So he began bringing auto-loan debt and even credit-card debt to TAF. TAF swallowed them whole, and excreted more cash. And TAF kept growing, the more it was fed!

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, people began to notice prices were skyrocketing. Late at night, while people were asleep, Ben Bernanke would shovel the excreted cash from TAF into a wheel-barrow and dump it far away from the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors.

No one suspected the rising prices were being caused by a carnivorous creature named TAF, growing larger in the basement of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors.

By some, the TAF began to be called a Black Swan: There was no telling how things would turn out! (Background: “Black Swan Over Wall Street”, http://www.shout.net/~bigred/BlackSwan.html)

The owner of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors wore a disguise to distance himself from the situation. When pressed, he let it be known this TAF phenomena was “an unusual episode.”

Late at night, when people were asleep, Ben Bernanke shoveled up the cash excretions from TAF and dumped them on the other side of town. By now, a wheel-barrow could not hold all the paper dollars. So Bernanke obtained a helicopter with which he hauled the excretions.

At the back door of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors, Wall Streeters pulled up in their limousines. They handed Ponzi collateral, level 3 assets marked to fantasy, and even collateral from European banks to Bernanke. He would scurry down to the basement, feed this all to TAF, then gather the cash excretions and deliver them to the Wall Streeters. The stock market began to rise.

Then, mutations of TAF were born, down in the basement of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors! Ben Bernanke named the offspring Primary Dealer Credit Facility and Term Securities Lending Facility.

Newspapers didn't know what to make of all the sudden inflation. They nervously blamed “speculators.” Terrified, the government kept saying, “Inflation is benign.” But the people knew better: they knew how much the food and the gas were costing!

Today, at the Asia Times, Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene have caught on to the insatiable creature growing exponentially in the basement of the Little Shop Of “Fed” Horrors. Barrels of oil have gone from $65 to $135 they notice. Might this connect somehow to the “petro-dollar”? More dollars, excreted by TAF, mean higher prices for the petro? Some sort of balance between the petro and the dollar? Askari and Krichene plead, “Stop the Little Shop Of 'Fed' Horrors before it's too late!” (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE31Dj04.html)

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