US is insolvent but will print dollars like confetti – economist

Michael Pento, a senior economist at Euro Pacific Capital, believes President Barack Obama’s claims that the US is still worthy of a top-credit rating is nothing more than empty confidence-building rhetoric.

“We saw the markets vote on what the president had to say, and what Mr. Geithner had to say. Obviously the market believes in what Standard & Poor’s has done, and the US is no longer, unfortunately, a AAA credit rated country,” Pento told RT.Pento says that although many people may blame Obama for the state of the economy, in fact he just inherited a lousy situation.“Right now our deficits annually are 10 percent of GDP,” he said. “Our GDP is growing -1 percent. So it doesn’t matter what Obama says, I don’t want to blame Republicans or blame Democrats, but I will congratulate the Tea Party for making this a salient discussion.”Pento believes the US’s debt is intractable and that the country is becoming insolvent.“Once the Chinese fully understand it, and once the Japanese and Europeans, and all our foreign creditors, sense the idea that we cannot pay back our debt without inflation, and monetizing, and counterfeiting, there will be a blood-coated treasury auction which will send interest rates to the moon, or at least high single digits,” he predicted.“And then it will be clear as day that the US is insolvent,” he added. “And that is what the S&P is trying to avoid. They should be applauded and congratulated, and not vilified the way they are being in the mainstream media.”Though Pento’s long-term predictions are quite grim, he still believes it is really a buying opportunity right now.“The rally is going to start tomorrow, when Ben Bernanke gets up and exclaims the beginning of QE3,” he forecasted. “We are going to print dollars like confetti. So in nominal terms, the average will go up, and people will say ‘Oh, gee! What a hero Ben Bernanke has become!’ Of course, your money is not going to buy you much, but it will look good on paper.”

Marko Pietropoli, a financial adviser at RM Wealth Management in London, says that in the absence of any positive indicators, the overall market trend will continue to be downward for some time.“There are a lot of issues that need to be sorted out,” he said. “And I can’t see how they are going to be sorted out in the near term. And it’s very difficult to see where the growth is going to come from moving forward.”“Things may carry on going south for a couple of days, but then there’s likely to be a bit of a pullback,” he added. “Over the next six to 12 to 18 months, my view is still bearish.”