Andy Kessler: You Can't "Print" Prosperity

Famed hedge fund manager and Silicon Valley guru Andy Kessler says this is a sucker's rally...you can't print prosperity, it comes from productivity.

"Bernanke's cranking the handle on the printing press to help the public fund the bank problems instead of the US government...as soon as he stops cranking the handle, the bottom falls out on this thing."

"I don't want to be the sucker buying into this market."

"You can't print prosperity."  

Pure gold from Andy, as usual.

Check out his full comments at the 18-minute mark of this video:

Andy Kessler: Bernanke Should Spell Out Plans to Combat Hyperinflation

Andy Kessler, famed hedge fund manager, investor, author, and one of my favorite guys to listen to live, writes that Ben Bernanke needs to spell out very soon how he plans to combat hyperinflation.

With all the extra money being created (printed, via "quantitative easing") shloshing around, Kessler believes, as we do, that this could get out of hand real fast if and when the economy starts to pick up again.

I have no idea how Bernanke is going to do it - my guess is that he won't.  I don't believe there's ever been a time in history where this amount of rapid money creation has not led to severe inflation.  If anyone can correct me, please drop a comment below.

Click here for more recent articles from Andy Kessler.

Andy Kessler: WSJ: Clean Up Print

Taking the "pro" side of the bailout argument, Andy Kessler believes that Henry Paulson may be pulling off "the mother of all trades." Andy calculates this move could net over a trillion dollars for the US Treasury.

I've mentioned before that Andy's about as smart as they come, and that I'm a big fan of his unique way of analyzing the world, beyond financial markets. Seeing him take the other side of the ledger on this move does give me pause - we'll need to make sure we are diligent in constantly rechecking our assumptions here.

Andy Kessler: Lehman = Pan Am

If you're looking for a sound perspective on the latest Wall St firm meltdown, take a look at Andy Kessler's latest article for Forbes.com, where he compares the shut down of Lehman to the shut down of the old Pan Am Airlines - as in, nobody is going to miss them.

Andy is about as sharp as they come, and I read anything written by him that I can get my hands on (including his excellent books). I'm fortunate enough to have had the privilege of talking with him in person on multiple occasions, including a breakfast I was invited to last year with him down at his favorite Silicon Valley breakfast spot.