As for Bernanke’s cherished principle of transparency, that has now clearly been thrown overboard, and by opting to enact this just days after Bernanke expressed the view that the US economy would recover in 2010, Mr Bernanke’s credibility is shot to pieces.
Wikinvest Wire
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Didn't Think Of That
From Marc Ostwald of Monument Securities via the FT;
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9 comments:
Have to give congratulations to the "accrued Interest" blog yesterday. He sure nailed the Fed Announcement, transparanent or not.
Of course,I missed the trade.(sigh)
OG
I think Ben is playing the hand he is dealt. Besides, he is only following the lead of our esteemed President.
What is a trillion more dollars upon the present mound of debt we have put into place?
Perhaps "no war for oil" is turning into "no handouts for BHO" for many gainfully employed Americans concerned about social engineering and thin-skinned Ivy-league policy wonks with their accomplices in Congress using a recession to propel their far-left agenda.
Ben needs to let the printing presses run 24/7. He has no choice.
Inflation will be the next issue soon enough. And we will suffer.
T
I find it very interesting that when Paulson/Bush made ridiculous decisions, the right political pundits never mentioned their analysis. Today, when Bernanke/Obama make a decision, this group is all over them with their negative analysis.
I keep wondering, if the US always bickered like this, how did we ever march ahead. Perhaps the true colors of democracy has reared its head...and maybe, just maybe, countries of South America, Russia, China will become the new leaders of the world.
Remember in the 50's when we Americans thought we were the greatest people in the world. Boy, have times changed.
Have to agree with the assessment of Bernanke's credibility WRT transparency, particularly because the possibility exists that transparency might be selective; e.g., the Fed may leak.
As Jesse comments over at Café Américain: "What was particularly repugnant was the co-ordinated actions in the market ahead of this announcement. This included a major bear raid on the precious metals, and the panic-covering of the financial shares before the official announcement."
Now all of this was in the cards more than a year ago and Bernanke said as much then and, more recently when he introduced his quantitative easing policy, for those paying attention but that's policy discussion and not timing: All due respect to Accrued Interest but a fair number of folks did know this was coming, they just didn't know when. Two things for sure regardless: (a) Some very big money went on the line just ahead of the announcement and (b) none of it was mine although my existing positions in gold and long bonds did benefit (I will sell some today).
Before the domestic economy of the United States stops declining and starts to move in a positive direction, the flow of credit for housing, education, credit cards and cars must be growing not contracting.
Without credit ratings, there is really no effective debt markets. At this point in time, the CRAs have no creditability.
At some point, perhaps the people in charge will wake up to the fact that without a creditable credit rating agency system, there will continue to be a problem in the re-establishment of the debt markets for doing business in the 21st century.
I read that and then wondered to myself, what right does Wachovia have to question anything! There are people at Wochovia still asking questions? Great...
Batten down the hatches Roger.
http://tinyurl.com/cvpxxm
JackS, I thought I read a lot of stuff you find an amazing amount of things. TY for leaving them here.
Tonga is kind of far I think?? When we were there there was a decent sized quake in the Hamakua district (up north) out in the water and also a smaller one somewhere else. Maybe I'm wrong but there seems to be a little pick up in seismic activity of late.
Roger, I've been visiting your site
for years now, and I have enjoyed
every day of it...thanks.
Not that anyone has forgotten
our troops thru this mess of
401Ks diving - home equity diving...but if you would like
to spend some time remembering
our soldiers...may I recommend
watching the HBO movie.
http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/
thanks for letting me post this...
now back to investing:-)
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