Last week, the leaders of the world’s central banks were attempting to regain their souls. FEDERAL RESERVE Chair Jerome Powell told tales of woe as workers were suffering as inflation rose. Crush the evil inflation out of the system is the battle cry in an effort to recreate the melodrama of Andrew Mellon in 1931: liquidate, liquidate, liquidate in an effort to Calvinize the evil from the economy by crushing demand. Powell did note that housing had weakened SIGNIFICANTLY and financial conditions HAVE TIGHTENED CONSIDERABLY but will have to be patient because monetary policy acts with a lag.
Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Jordan’
Notes From Underground: ‘Twas the Week Before Christmas
December 18, 2022Notes From Underground: Myopic Gibberish
May 12, 2020The Tweeter-in-Chief on Tuesday was pushing on a string as he called for NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES (again). The Federal Reserve is also debating in public the idea of negative interest rates and seemed to believe there are better tools to be utilizing than rates below zero.
Notes From Underground: Euthanize the Rentiers
December 22, 2019As we head into the global macro uncertainty of 2020, equity markets continue to elevate due to central bank liquidity additions. One year ago, U.S. equities suffered large losses, which some attributed to the FED firing its DOUBLE SHOTGUN of interest rate increases with QUANTITATIVE TIGHTENING (Druckenmiller/Boockvar).
Notes From Underground: “It’s Good News Week”
December 10, 2019What an appropriate song for the band Hedgehoppers Anonymous. This week is loaded with potential market-moving outcomes. On Wednesday we have the final FOMC statement of the year followed by Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference. The CONSENSUS is for no change in the current fed funds target range of 1.5% to 1.75%. The real key will hopefully be Powell’s press conference as market participants are hoping for any sort of dialogue about the Fed’s role in the repo market.
Notes From Underground: “Where Did I Find This Guy Jerome?”
September 8, 2019Of all the U.S. president’s tweets (and believe he has a lot), Friday’s tweet about Federal Reserve Chairman was one of the best. Unfortunately, there probably should’ve been a comma between “guy” and “Jerome” since one could ask the question about any member of Trump’s economic team. President Trump could be asking the Fed chairman about Secretary Steven Mnuchin, or Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and certainly of Larry Kudlow or Peter Navarro. NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND has been asking that for many months. In my opinion, the only Trump pick that inspires confidence is Robert Lighthizer.
Notes From Underground: Did Xi Just Provide a Clue to China’s Yellow Brick Road?
April 28, 2019In the past week, we have heard from the Bank of Canada and Bank of Japan. There were no surprises as both institutions noted softness in the global economy. The BOC, as reported by Bloomberg, “fully abandoned its bias toward raising interest rates at the economy grapples with a slowdown.” The BOC overnight rate remains at 1.75 percent, which is deemed appropriate by the Governing Council until the global economy removes some of the uncertainties it is struggling to overcome.
Notes From Underground: Narrow-Minded Hypocrites, All I Want Is the Truth
December 13, 2018Gimme some truth. That is what John Lennon craved back in 1971. In 2018, it seems that investors and traders crave the same thing:
I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted,narrow-minded hypocrits
All I want is the truth, just Give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is going to mother hubbard soft soap me
With a pocketful of hope
Money for dope, money for rope
Notes From Underground: Is April The Cruelest Month?
April 29, 2018As T.S. Eliot warned in The Wasteland, April is the cruelest month, as the thaw of winter gives way to hope as the world returns to rejuvenation. April has delivered the first quarter corporate results and it is no exaggeration to state that revenue and earnings have exceeded expectations. However, the equity market results have failed to respond to the robust numbers as the SPOOS have gained a mere 1.25% and remain unchanged on the year. The NASDAQ 100 has been a much better performer as the TECH sector continues to cruise.
Notes From Underground: Some Issues to Contemplate
January 16, 2018On Tuesday, Rick Santelli and I spoke, and, as usual it was way too short as we couldn’t cover anything in the depth we would’ve liked. Regardless, it allows us to get out front of many investment ideas. Rick has a stable of high quality guests: Bianco, Boockvar, Biderman, Trichet, Lazear … the list goes on and sometimes I wish my readers would let CNBC know how important Rick is for a larger discussion about ideas besides the most recent Apple price and latest Trump tweets.
Click on the image to watch me and Rick discuss the euro and the central banks.
Notes From Underground: A Celebration Of The Greatest Act Of Financial Alchemy (Ever)
October 25, 2017The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has pulled off the greatest act of alchemy by printing copious amounts of Swiss francs (CHF) and turning the currency into real corporate assets. The SNB has grown its balance sheet to CHF800 billion from CHF500 billion in 2015, 85 percent of which is foreign exchange holdings in various forms. As the SNB struggled to weaken the franc to prevent the ultimate safe-haven currency from strengthening and putting the Swiss economy into a DEFLATIONARY SPIRAL. The Swiss experiment began January 15, 2015 as the SNB officially removed the EUR/CHF PEG, which it was attempting to HOLD. Yet the market kept buying the franc despite the SNB’s efforts (the PEG had a 1.20 floor).