Bernanke Turns to Jawboning: Opinion

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

NEW YORK (Bullion Bulls Canada) -- I have previously written that the U.S.'s 0% interest rates are the economic equivalent of hooking someone up to a defibrillator. Shock someone continuously with a defibrillator for three-plus years and it is safe to say that we will not end up with a patient in recovery, but merely a badly charred corpse.

The same goes for the U.S. economy. Three-plus years of continuous, maximum stimulus has produced nothing except a steady stream of absurd statistics, attempting to delude the sheep into believing this badly charred corpse is recovering.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has announced that 0% interest rates -- i.e. the economic defibrillator -- will remain cranked up to its maximum setting for at least three more years. He is either oblivious or simply indifferent to the economic carnage this is inflicting on the U.S. economy, and the global economy as a whole.

Sadly, that carnage has just barely begun to manifest itself. The U.S. housing market is yet another place where throngs of "zombies" reside. In this case, it is millions of zombie-mortgages -- already underwater, with U.S. housing prices destined to keep falling for as far as one can see into the future. Here, the walking dead can only be resurrected through massive principal reductions. However, since that would push the "Wall Street zombies" much closer to their own annihilation, such relief is denied to the holders of the zombie-mortgages.

Savers are also being slaughtered. As the U.S. population ages and becomes more dependent on personal savings to fuel this consumer economy, the massive wealth-drain being inflicted on this ever-growing demographic through massively negative real interest rates ensures there is no future for this zombie economy -- other than burial, followed by (eventual) rebirth.

Stripped of their savings, the greying U.S. population has no recourse but to fall back on (supposed) entitlement programs: the U.S. social safety net. Pathetically, the American population remains almost entirely oblivious to the fact that this safety net is illusory.