Bernanke doesn’t seem to understand that he is 100% trapped

The above title refers to comments from Bill Fleckenstein, an investor and market pundit who has been bullish on gold and a strong critic of the Federal Reserve for many years.

In his latest article for MSN Money, Fleckenstein wrote that “Bernanke doesn’t seem to understand that he is 100% trapped. Either he needs to spring more quantitative easing (i.e., QE3) soon, or stocks will crash more and he will have to do it later anyway. For a guy committed to printing our way to prosperity, he sure doesn’t seem to understand the monster that he and his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, have created.”

Fleckenstein went on to talk about the impact of the European sovereign debt crisis on the markets and economy, noting that “No matter what the Fed does, though, it can’t fix the problems inside the European banking system, nor can it cure the potential insolvency of European sovereign debt.”

“The scary part about Europe is that, at every step along the way, the European Central Bank, led by Jean-Claude Trichet, and the heads of the European Union have been a day late and a euro short trying to get out in front of the issues they face,” he continued. ”That is partly due to the inherent flaw of the euro system, namely, the difficulty of getting disparate countries to agree to the same policies…All this leaves us in a mode in which anything in any market can trade anywhere.”

Lastly, he wrote that “The potential bright side to all of the carnage is that it will force us to start dealing with our problems and hopefully scare us enough that we find the courage to solve them. However, in the short run (i.e., the next year or two), turmoil and pain will likely continue, as there are no short-term solutions to the litany of economic and financial problems that we — and the rest of the world — face.”