More money printing by the Fed is "all but guaranteed," Fleckenstein says

"'Helicopter' Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress for his semiannual visit July 21," writes money manager Bill Fleckenstein in his MSN Money column, "Contrarian Chronicles."

"Given the near hysteria sweeping the financial world about possible deflation, I expected to see the Federal Reserve chief's feet put to the fire more than they were regarding when the next round of quantitative easing might begin.

"Because he is on record as promising that deflation will not occur on his watch, he has dug himself a bit of a hole in terms of how - and how quickly--he must respond to the fear of deflation, let alone the reality, which some believe is already here.

"What many people seem to be missing is that the fear of deflation itself is perhaps the main reason more money printing by the Fed--that's in essence what quantitative easing is--is all but guaranteed. And that money printing will lead to inflation, not deflation (but for now, that is not the conventional wisdom). ...

"As for deflation versus inflation, in the near term we will probably continue to find ourselves in a period where we have symptoms of both."

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