Jim Grant on CNBC: Fed is Distorting Economy

Earlier, Jim Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, appeared on CNBC to discuss the actions of the Federal Reserve. Grant stated the Fed, and other central banks around the globe, are manipulating the market in unprecedented ways. He stated that the Fed was manipulating the currency to produce what it defined to be ideal macro economic outcomes. Grant said that the Fed, through the process of lowering interest rates, was changing investors' perceptions of risk, and making it so that people who wish to retire need more money to due just that. He warned that the Fed was dulling the market's perception of risk which could lead to mal-investment in the future. Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Fed was considering a new plan of intervention. Grant stated that the plan was the monetary equivalent of the statue of liberty play in football--that is to say, extremely complex. On Europe, Grant said the ECB was being even more intrusive than the Fed, noting that the actions of the ECB make the Fed look like a "piker."