The rise in energy prices; the surge in food prices; and the march higher in nominal stock market indices – all symptoms of one thing – central bank (or government) policy; and CNBC’s Rick Santelli is calling them to task for their two-faced ignorance. “What is the difference between outright currency manipulation versus the collateral damage to one’s currency based on central bank programs?” he rhetorically asks, “in my mind, very little, but obviously, in the minds of many leaders of G-7 developed economies, there’s a huge distinction.” And therein lies the rub. As Japan follows Bernanke’s decade-old plan to reflate by literally printing money into existence – just as every other developed fiat currency nation – their argument is that they are fighting deflation – or stimulating growth – when, in fact “The distinction between collateral damage and outright manipulation is absolute malarkey.” Now that the currency wars have gone global – no matter what well-placed op-eds will try to convince otherwise – Santelli sums it all up perfectly, “in the end when you don’t have a standard and you have printing and fiat currency, what level of value is real?“ 

We remind those bullish Japanese stocks that the 11% rise in the NKY since the holidays has created 0% wealth for a USD investor thanks to the JPY destruction (beta is 175 NKY points per 1 big figure handle shift in USDJPY) – ask the Zimbabweans how wealthy they felt.