In a letter to Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, Senator Sherrod Brown warns the administration to not simply place more Wall Street cronies in filling the three vacancies at the Federal Reserve, which will open up once Fed vice chairman Donald Kohn leaves this coming June. Instead of mere" maximum liquidity" automatons, Brown wants the new Fed members to be "committed to transparency, consumer protection and lowering the unemployment rate." Furthermore, Brown demands that "we need economic policy makers who possess the foresight to identify harmful economic trends, the courage to speak out about the necessity of addressing these practices before they inflict lasting damage to our economy, and the wisdom to listen even if their views are challenged." Alas, as transparency and rationa thought, coupled with proactive defensive actions means game over for the Fed, these conditions are an immediate deal killer, with the result being that the only affirmative criteria for new Fed membership is the endorsement of Lloyd Blankfein and current Fed Director Jamie Dimon. With the yield curve merely at record wides, there is certainly enough room for the current 2s10s spread of 282 to at least double as the American middle class still has a little money that can be stolen, in space or time, by Wall Street, with the Fed's endless blessings
From Brian P. Sack , Executive Vice President
In a letter to the CFTC's Chairman, Gary Gensler , GATA Chairman William Murphy shares the following bombshell: " GATA has evidence that there are enormous physical short positions in the gold and silver markets that cannot be covered. " Even as the CFTC is meeting later this month to establish position limits in the gold, silver, and other precious metals' markets, it could be none other than the CFTC's core banks, and Mr.
Love him or hate him (and based on some recent appearances, notably side by side Hugh Hendry , he hasn't left much room for amorous intentions), Joe Stiglitz once again takes center stage, this time in this appearance at the Commenwealth Club, in which he discusses various things (among which are his grading of Obama, which compared to Dubya' administration, he gives an A+ , and since this is roughly in line with where the rating agencies rate the US, it should raise all sorts of red flags). One of the key topics of discussion is his claim that efficient markets are a myth, and that Adam Smith's "invisible hand" appears as such because it was never truly there
Looks like Tom Hoenig's dissension at the recent FOMC vote is starting to generate some serious traction. A paper just released by V.V.
It is well-documented by economists at SocGen and elsewhere, that the world has now entered a race to the currency bottom.
A week ago Ron Paul asked Ben Bernanke a series of questions, which the Chairman and pundits immediately dismissed as "bizarre" and an indication that the potential presidential candidate has finally lost it (among these was a very nuanced question whether or not the Fed is buying sovereign debt , something which Bernanke disclosed in 2002 is a distinct possibility and an action the Fed is permitted to do). Chief among these were queries arising from the work of U of T professor Robert Auerbach, and specifically his book " Deception and Abuse at the Fed " ( not available on Kindle), which seek information on whether the Fed was involved in the Watergate scandal and, subsequently, in Iraqi weapons purchases.
By the thinnest of margins, the SEC just voted 3-2 to institute the short-selling rule which will put curbs on shorting individual securities that fall over 10% in any one day. Dow Jones points out that even market decisions are now split according to party lines: "Republican Commissioners Kathleen Casey and Troy Paredes said Wednesday they would vote against the proposal. Democratic Commissioners Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter signaled their support for it, along with SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, who was appointed last year by President Barack Obama." Paredes was further quotes as saying that the rule is "rooted in conjecture and too speculative." Not surprisingly, Aguilar and Walter, both likely reading from the party lines said that this would "help bolster market confidence." At this point we are too lazy to pull the S&P chart of what happened in 2008 when shorting in select stocks was proclaimed verboten for a certain amount of time
Submitted by Damian Hoffman of Wall St. Cheat Sheet . FYI - Fred Hickey is the author of the excellent High-Tech Strategist newsletter
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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