With Britain's decision to leave the European Union, one of Wall Street's most closely followed bears says that Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen should send the Brexit campaign leaders a gift basket.
The U.K.'s decision sent global markets reeling in its aftermath, hiking volatility and injecting uncertainty into the outlook for the world's economy. For those reasons, a growing number Wall Street watchers think the Fed's timetable to gradually hike interest rates have been severely curtailed, if not taken off the table altogether.
The Fed's willingness to begin pulling back on crisis era policy was already in doubt. "Now, Janet Yellen can blame her failure to raise rates on Brexit," said Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital on CNBC's "Trading Nation" this week.
"She could even use this as an excuse to cut rates back to zero and launch QE4," the bearish investor said, referring to a fourth round of quantitative easing, the massive bond buying used by the Fed to try and spur growth.
"As far as Janet Yellen is concerned, the British have given her the gift that keeps on giving," concluded Schiff.
A relentless critic of the central bank, Schiff used Britain's referendum as a new reason to blast U.S. financial leaders. He said without Brexit, the Fed would have to admit that domestic economic weakness is the true reason for leaving rates near zero.
"For months, the corner that the Fed has painted itself into has gotten smaller and smaller," explained Schiff in his recent coverage. "Sadly, Fed officials are discovering that their supply of credibility is not infinite."
Markets suffered a harrowing trading session on Friday, with the Dow plunged over 600 points to a 10-month low, and Germany DAX
Schiff believes that weak markets will continue to fuel the Fed's resistance to tightening monetary policy. He said that when critics call out the Fed's inaction, the Fed can simply point to uncertainty in the U.K., the world's fifth largest economy.
- Source, CNBC
