[R-G] First, 'fix the economy'

[Sid Shniad]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090401.wxrsprott01art1931/BNStory/Sports/columnists/ 



Globe and Mail                                                Report on Business                                         April 1, 2009 



First, 'fix the economy' 



According to veteran money manager Eric Sprott, the American government’s moves to buy up toxic assets and guarantee debt are not in any rule book. He says that there was a credit bubble that broke and now they’re trying to prevent the logical outcome. 



By Brian Milner 



When it comes to a bearish view of the markets, veteran money manager Eric Sprott takes a back seat to no one. So it's not surprising that his firm, Sprott Asset Management, would organize an event, called A Night with the Bears, in Toronto next Tuesday, or that he would be one of the four prominent pessimists who will be addressing the latest market currents. 



With everything governments are doing to repair the financial system and prop up markets, is this really a good time to be such a committed bear? 



Here's how I characterize what a bear has to put up with. It's like you're in a Texas Hold 'em, no-limit poker game. You're the one bear at the table, and you've got the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Bank of England, the ECB. And they keep coming up with these moves that are all-in, all trying to prevent what is in fact transpiring ... So far, none has been successful. 



Are you saying they won't work? 



It's very difficult when they're fighting what I would call the forces of nature. The forces of nature would have had us in a bear market back in 2000, which was aborted by interest rate policy. ... Now we have, in essence, multilevel quantitative easing. It's everywhere. We'll see how that does.