page_title: Zero Hedge
section_title: Financial views
hierarchical_section_title: Zero Hedge / Manifesto and views / Financial views
caption_attribution_description: English: Recreation of a well-known chart from BIS data of the G3 central bank balance sheets: FEB, ECB and the BOJ
context_page_description: Zero Hedge or ZeroHedge is a far-right libertarian financial blog, presenting staff-written articles and aggregating news and opinions from external sources. Zero Hedge, per its motto, is bearish in its investment outlook and analysis, often deriving from its adherence to the Austrian School of economics and credit cycles. While often labeled as a financial permabear, Zero Hedge has also been described as a source of "cutting-edge news, rumors and gossip in the financial industry".
  Over time, Zero Hedge expanded into non-financial analysis, such as conspiracy theories and fringe rhetoric that has been associated with the US radical right and a pro-Russian bias. Zero Hedge's non-financial commentary has led to a number of § Site bans by various global social media platforms, although its 2019 Facebook ban and 2020 Twitter ban were later reversed.
  Zero Hedge in-house content is posted under the pseudonym "Tyler Durden"; the founder and main editor was identified as Daniel Ivandjiiski.
context_section_description: The most strongly held belief by Zero Hedge is in Austrian economics, and that economic cycles are really credit cycles, and that the quantitative easing ("QE") by global central banks is a temporary and artificial asset-price support scheme, that makes the credit cycle even more extreme; and hence the site's strongly bearish views. As a result of this view, Zero Hedge supports assets that are outside of the central banking system, including precious metals and gold, and even cryptocurrencies. The site is strongly against Keynesian economics, and sees quantitative easing as a Keynesian "money printing trick", and vilifies advocates of this approach, such as Paul Krugman in particular.  The site praises writers with similar views, such  Albert Edwards and John Hussman.
  Critics of Zero Hedge label the site a "permabear", whose views missed the global recovery since 2013. Zero Hedge responds that the since 2013, global central banks have undertaken a continuous program of quantitative easing ("QE") (e.g. aggregate monthly easing has rarely dropped below the level of QE1 or QE2, see graphic opposite), and when QE1 and QE2 ended, markets collapsed. The site references Japan, whose market set new lows after each round of QE, from 1994–2013, and where the latest round of QE, started in 2013, has seen the BOJ become a dominant owner of the Nikkei 225.
  Zero Hedge maintains a number of financial views/theories which are considered conspiratorial, and/or hard-to-prove or unprovable; notable views include:
  Price manipulation by high-frequency trading ("HFT"). The belief that investment banks/funds use HFT/"dark pools" to manipulate prices;
  Precious metals manipulation.  The belief that investment banks manipulate precious metals prices to suit their derivative books;
  Plunge-protection-team ("PPT").  The belief that central banks intervene in markets on a frequent, almost daily basis, to support prices;
  U.S banks front running the U.S. FED.  The belief that U.S. investment banks, most profitable of all global investment banks, have knowledge of PPT trades;
  Market illiquidity.  The belief that market liquidity, when HFT and PPT flows are taken out, is low, implying prices are artificial;
  Chinese fraud.  The belief that Chinese economic data is made-up, and that many Chinese companies are fraudulent (called "fraudcaps" by the site);
  Manipulation of house prices.  The belief that central bankers, Mark Carney as most typical, use houses as stimulus, by loosening mortgage terms.
  A connected theme from the above views is that central banks have nationalized capital markets, that prices are artificial and do not reflect economic theory, that U.S. financial institutions have profited from this, and that the manipulation of asset prices has driven wealth inequality in society and built up financial risks (due to the leverage against these prices). Zero Hedge often shows the chart of G3 balance sheets versus Amazon's share price (see graphic), concluding that U.S. taxpayer's money has been used by the U.S. FED to make U.S. taxpayers unemployed.
  Bearish macroeconomic views and conspiracy theories aside, Zero Hedge is noted as a source of detailed, but proprietary, research from Wall Street investment banks and institutions, on securities, which can be picked up by the financial media. Sometimes, the research is about other investment banks. It has also been a source of breaking news in the general capital markets industry. In Zero Hedge's early years, it was associated with exposing the unknown world of High-frequency trading ("HFT"), and the HFT techniques that Zero Hedge claimed amounted to market manipulation.
  Zero Hedge is known for personalized attacks on specific finance professionals, examples being newsletter writer and commodity analyst Dennis Gartman (over 758 articles), Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman (over 703 articles), and fund manager Whitney Tilson (over 325 articles), amongst others.
caption: Recreation of a typical Zero Hedge chart from BIS data of G3 central bank balance sheets: FEB, ECB and BOJ
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