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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (80807)	10/3/2011 8:57:07 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 217710

acting man updates: 1. Thomas Hoenig's Final Parting Shots We never thought we'd be sad to see a Federal Reserve president sail off into retirement, but Thomas Hoenig is an exception. With him, the Fed's board is losing the only member who seemed to truly 'get it'. The serial dissenter uses his last week in office to deliver a withering and trenchant critique of the Fed's easy money policy. If he weren't a central banker himself, one could almost think he is beginning to question the institution as such. acting-man.com 2. The EFSF Leverage Debate, Rising Euro Area CPI and the Market Reaction Following the ratification of the new EFSF agreement by 14 of the 17 euro area member states, we look at the state of the debate over the leveraging of the EFSF. It looks like it will eventually be coming, but there remain significant obstacles. As usual, the dramatis personae contradict not only each other, but often contradict themselves as well. Meanwhile, the ECB's hands appear to be tied - following a shockingly high euro area flash CPI estimate, the ECB would normally have to hike rates, not lower them. Alas, money supply growth in the euro area remains anemic at the same time and economic growth is going into reverse. The ECRI meanwhile makes waves with a dire sounding US recession call. All of this combined was accompanied by a wave of selling of 'risk assets' on Friday and further deterioration in credit default swaps on sovereigns and banks. Lately, US banks and brokers have also been drawn into the downward spiral of the market's negative re-assessment of the creditworthiness of Western financial institutions , with Morgan Stanley looking especially sick. CDS on Japan's sovereign debt quietly hit a new high as well. Charts updated. acting-man.com 3. Establishment Quacks for More Money Printing A less than reverential look at Über-Keynesian Alan Blinder's assessment of the Fed's latest shenanigans - apparently the man has never met an intervention he didn't like. Already he is fantasizing about the other things the Fed could monetize in addition to treasuries and agency MBS. Soon nothing that's not nailed down will be safe. Martin Wolf - one of the 'most influential writers on economics today' according to Wikipedia - once again openly calls for more money printing, while alleging that all those critical of such calls are 'cruel', 'insane' and 'immoral'. At least he's refreshingly honest about it and not hiding behind euphemisms. Alas, the man is living proof of the sad state the science of economics finds itself in today. That is what it comes down to in the end: we're supposed to follow the same hoary inflationist doctrines that have been refuted theoretically over and over again a long time ago, and have never worked in practice anywhere. We think that both Wolf and his hero Adam Posen of the MPC are dangerous quacks. acting-man.com