— Fed Obsession, much of it is media-inspired with little in the way of real perspective … their conclusion is always negative. — Inflation is today’s monster issue. Since fiscal restraint has become a lost art it is up to the Fed to slay that dragon all by itself. — The trigger yesterday were comments by Fed Governor,…
Tag: jerome Powell
Fed Speakers Weigh In: Good Policy or Grandstanding?
— Seems like everybody wants to get into the act … St. Louis Fed President Bullard and Fed Governor Waller call for stronger measures to fight inflation. — Though we value free speech, should the Fed speak with one voice when it comes to monetary policy? — Are opinions and forecasts based on the “dismal science” of…
Is that gorilla in the room an 800 pounder or 80 pounds?
— The gorilla, of course, is Fed policy and rising interest rates. — For certain segments of the market (Big Tech/The Innovators in particular) it rightly looms large. — For the rest of the market Wednesdays action was an exercise in ‘sawing sawdust’, reacting in a predictable way to old news. — The market sends a clear…
The Omicron Muddle: Opinion Versus Fact
— The market is being pummeled by a barrage of opinion on the Omicron variant of Covid 19. — There is a great divergence of opinion: the Moderna view vs. the Oxford view. — The facts that are available would seem to indicate that the market may be over-reacting on the downside. A barrage of divergent opinion on Covid…
UST 10-year rockets — a misguided attempt at beating the Fed to the punch
— A flight to safety … the yield on the 10-year treasury drops 15% in two weeks in a raging bull market. — For some investors (computerized or not) fears of higher interest rates and inflation trump a rip-roaring economy with a tankful of fiscal stimulus and easy monetary policy as far as the eye can…
Tuesday’s Market Bloodbath: Is Still “Much ado about nothing”
–Tuesday September 28, 2021 showed us a very predictable market reaction to No New News, save greater conviction that inflation may not be that transient and rates will be going up. –Market participants (including their computers) have been conditioned by the media to react in this way over decades and there is no nuance with the…
The Big Lie About The End of Quantitative Easing and Other Media Malpractice
–There is a falsehood constantly perpetuated by the media that the end of Quantitative Easing (QE) will be bad for the market and you should worry about it. –This is hard to imagine given that the emergency which brought us QE has passed, and QE’s ability to keep rates lower may be greatly exaggerated. –Why is it that Chairman…
Stock Market at The Crossroads–Buy, Sell or Hold?
We are at a crossroads. The stock market has done (as usual) what most people did not expect. The S&P 500 gained back most of what it lost on the Covid crash, closing last Friday (5/8/20) only off a little more than 13% from its February 20, all-time-high (3393.52). This is after the index had…
Nothing inspires confidence like an emergency Fed funds rate cut
— During the entire panic on the downside you had to ask ‘are things really that bad out there?’ — One also has to ask how does a cut of 50 basis points on the Fed funds rate positively impact the trajectory the COVID19 epidemic. — Fortunately, the answer may be ‘no’ to bullet number…
“The president is the Yankees and Powell is the Toledo Mud Hens.”
Thus spake Jim Cramer … Wednesday morning June 19. Previously in the “Squawk on the Street” segment he opined, “Powell is living in a conventional world,” not the World of Trump. Powell’s conventional world is a place where you try to get the near-impossible (monetary policy) right. It is a world that involves meticulously working…