Three reasons why the Fed needs to taper now

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Who would have thought that the Federal Reserve would create enough drama in one week to be in contention for a Lifetime original movie?

First, there was the unexpected news of Larry Summers withdrawing his name from consideration for the chairman position on Sunday afternoon.

Now, all eyes and ears are on the Fed meeting Wednesday, anxiously awaiting the word on whether the Fed will commence cutting back on—or "tapering"—its massive amount of monthly asset purchases.

It's time for the drama to end and for the U.S. markets and the economy to get back to some sense of normalcy—and that starts with the Fed removing its intervention in the market.

Here are three of the reasons why the Fed needs to begin tapering immediately:

(Read more: Here it comes: Get ready for the Fed to taper)

We benefit by avoiding the Big 'U'

Knowledge—or the perception of knowledge—is powerful for market psychology.

What's worse than Fed printing continuing until the end of time is the market knowing that there will be a policy change while not knowing when. The market may not want the Fed's printing party to stop, but investors can adapt their strategy if they know how and when it's coming.

It's the big "U"—uncertainty—that wreaks havoc on the market and can be a catalyst for a serious change in momentum.

This is even more important in the "hawkish vs. dovish" battle which has extended itself with Summers' withdrawal from chairman contention. Companies need some level of certainty to plan for the future and markets respond to that certainty as well, even if it is merely perception over reality.

The market is creating perverse corporate incentives

The Fed's asset purchasing program has supported the market in a manner that has shifted the focus from fundamentals to easy money.

(Read more: Mad dash to debt as rate window starts to close)

Companies have used historically low interest rates to boost their own balance sheets, ultimately pursuing corporate finance strategies like increasing dividends and engaging in share buybacks rather than reinvesting in their businesses. These actions create short-term value for shareholders at the expense of long-term value.

Also, the focus on earnings at any cost versus producing high-quality earnings is a penny-wise and pound-foolish strategy.

The Fed-supported market doesn't penalize companies enough for anemic revenue growth, as long as companies make or exceed on the bottom line each quarter.

This shift in using capital for financial engineering or even merely stockpiling cash has been at the expense of corporate investment. In addition to the aforementioned share buybacks, corporate earnings have been driven in large part by first lowering estimates, but then by operational cost cutting, including significant cuts to overhead.


This has resulted in less well-paying and overall jobs available, leading to more underemployment and unemployment on absolute terms.

On the business side, it's led to fewer significant capital investments. This leads to less business and consumer spending and lower revenues, which cannot boost the economy to levels needed to get back on track. Not to mention that it's not a sustainable strategy; eventually companies will run out of "efficiencies" to squeeze out of their business and will suffer from their lack of investing for the future.

Until we remove the artificial market support, companies will have very little incentive to optimize their entire organizations and create jobs.

Main Street needs to catch up to Wall Street—for everyone's sake

While Wall Street has clearly benefited from the Fed's Intervention, most Americans have not.

Sure, lower interest rates make a home or a car loan more affordable today, but overall this artificial environment has created challenges for the people of Main Street.

In addition to the abysmal employment environment, lower interest rates have made it difficult for retirees and those planning for retirement to be able to count on—as they used to be able to—some reasonable rate of return on their savings and debt-based investments.

(Read more: Jobs growth misses high hopes; rate drops to 7.3%)

This has led to less available money for those retired, so they are forced to spend less or deplete their savings. It has also led to trade-offs in savings for those planning for their future.

This lack of interest income due to artificially depressed rates will continue to have dire consequences as inflation eventually comes back and devalues the savings that these individuals currently have had to make up for.

This situation is not good for the long-term health of the economy and the longer it takes to return to real interest rates the more damage that will be done. Thinking that this won't have an effect on the market is purely naïve.

Carol Roth is a CNBC contributor, a recovering investment banker and best-selling author of "The Entrepreneur Equation." Follow her on Twitter: @CarolJSRoth

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