Ignorance...or Arrogance?

If the following headlines are any guide, a sizeable cohort of Wall Street types expects addditional Fed easing:

"Fewer Investors Rule Out QE3, Citi Survey Shows" (Businessweek)

"Gross to Gundlach Lead Bond Investors Seeing QE3 From Fed" (Businessweek)

"POLL-Most US dealers see Fed QE3 stimulus later this year" (Reuters)

"QE3 Is Still Coming" (TheStreet)

And yet, we have this:

"Flurry of Fed Comments Suggest Less Chance of Easing" (CNBC)

A week of voluminous Fed speak has confirmed market suspicions that the Federal Open Market Committee has subtly shifted towards a more hawkish stance on additional easing.

Comments from nine of the 17 FOMC members this week did not, on balance, suggest any imminent shift from the current easy money policy.

But they did underscore the belief that began to take hold with the March monetary policy statement that the central bank, given the current forecast, is not planning a third round of quantitative easing.

Even more significantly, it may not even be planning to extend "Operation Twist," the Fed’s current program under which it sells short-term securities in its portfolio and buys longer-dated paper in order to try and drive down long-term rates. The program ends in June.

Under the circumstances, some might wonder whether the "smart money" types are deluding themselves -- or whether they are the ones who are actually running the (monetary policy) show.

What do you think?

Comments

[What's good for the goose is good for the gander!]

Fed Access for All !

Why should just banks have all the fun? Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair proposes EVERYONE get access to the Fed window for free loans and 0% money.

Her gleeful take:

“Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on. The more adventuresome can buy 10-year Greek debt at 21 percent, for an annual income of $2.1 million. Or if Greece is a little too risky for you, go with Portugal, at about 12 percent, or $1.2 million dollars a year. (No sense in getting greedy.)

Think of what we can do with all that money. We can pay off our underwater mortgages and replenish our retirement accounts without spending one day schlepping into the office. With a few quick keystrokes, we’ll be golden for the next 10 years.”

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/04/fed-access-for-all/

...I think people are catching onto the big joke we call wealth creation!

[W.C. Varones]

Love the Sheila Bair thing. It illustrates so well how Zimbabwe Ben's ZIRP is just stealing from widows and orphans to give to the banksters.

As to MP's question, that which can't be paid back, won't. The US government can't afford to pay back $15 trillion (or even service and roll the debt at normal interest rates) in current dollars. Therefore, there will be devaluation or default. As nobody wants default, that leaves devaluation.

I'm not guaranteeing QE3 this year, but eventually, there's going to be a lot more money-printing.

Buy stocks, gold, food, and ammo.

[Rocky]

WC Varones: Not even the Germans were stupid enough to cut taxes in WWI, although they didn't raise them either to pay for the war. Their currency collapsed 5 years after the end of the war. We have been given a reprieve although I don't know how long the kindness of strangers will last. One day the country will have to pay for its foolish tax cuts during wartime and for all the promises it made but can't afford to keep. One of my relatives in Canada says I can use her spare bedroom if things get really bad in the US. It is always nice to have a plan B and lately, I have come to appreciate my dual citizenship more and more.

[Tom]

Rocky, when the shit hits the fan you may not be able to get out. Your timing will be very important to that plan B.

Stocks, gold, food and ammo won't do you much good for very long if the entire economy collapses. There's an especially troubling intersection of climate catastrophe and economic meltdown that looks to happen at just the right time to cause the most damage and suffering world-wide. Relentless storms, high winds, damaging hail, earthquakes, volcanic activity, and long-term drought can ruin economies, lives and anyones' plans for survival. Add to that the societal breakdown occurring all over the world as a result of the top-heavy accumulation of wealth (to the detriment of the majority) and it's anyones' guess as to the survival of mankind, let alone any area individually.

Watch for major changes this summer.

[roger]

Ignorance...or Arrogance?....
Possibly none of the above, nobody in the political arena
or financial circles operate in isolation,pressure groups
always operate in the background.

[Do bankster's ever jump from the discount window?]

Increasingly in Europe, Suicides ‘by Economic Crisis’

The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations of once-sturdy lives, leading to an alarming spike in suicide rates. Especially in the most fragile nations like Greece, Ireland and Italy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly taking their own lives in a phenomenon some European newspapers have started calling “suicide by economic crisis.”

“Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic,” Mr. Stuckler added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/europe/increasingly-in-europe-suicides-by-economic-crisis.html

[Maybe everyone is worried for their jobs?]

88 Million (That’s One In Three Americans) Are Invisible to Government Employment Statistics

The Obama administration is pulling out all the stops. If the real story came out – that the true unemployment rate in this country (those out of work plus those who the government deems as no longer participating) is almost triple that of the official BLS U-3 rate of 8.2% – confidence in the financial markets and the government’s ability to mitigate the crisis would be lost almost immediately. So, too, would Obama’s hope for another four years of fundamentally changing America.

But just because the President and his media conglomerates are preaching of recovery doesn’t mean that everyone believes it. A large portion of Americans, especially those millions of people without jobs, are not going to be swayed by the mainstream propaganda. They are living in a modern day depression right here and now, and they, too, will be headed to the polls in November. And, as Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, recently pointed out to RT, they don’t care about anything else except for their personal economic and financial circumstances:

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/88-million-thats-one-in-three-americans-are-invisible-to-government-employment-statistics_04132012

[Over 46,000,000 Americans are receiving some form of food assistance today]

Quiet Extermination (QE) or Quantitative easing (QE)...that's the real choice

U.S. has one of the highest number of employees working in low wage jobs of high paying industrialized nations.

Low wage jobs have been a big part of the so-called recovery. What they also signify is a more troublesome trend that continues to eat away at the middle class in this country. I’ve noted that the per capita average income for Americans is $25,000 and many seem to be shocked when they hear how low this figure is. A recent presentation only reinforces this figure by discussing the number of working Americans in low wage fields. The problem with having such a large portion of our population in low wage work is that as the cost of living goes up many of these people have a harder time providing for necessities like food, education, and also healthcare. Surprising or not, the nation has been seeing a massive divide between the working class and those at the top. The low wage employment growth signifies a continuation of this trend.

http://sgtreport.com/2012/04/u-s-has-one-of-the-highest-number-of-employees-working-in-low-wage-jobs-of-high-paying-industrialized-nations/

[Cost less financing]

Max Keiser on Mott Street with the Exorcism of Blythe Masters

Max covers some important issues including fraud in the markets, Wall Street, the role of collateral, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, crap deals of JPM, congress, Goldman Sachs, fraud, ECB, IMF, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Germany, derivatives, financial terrorism, global raping-destruction of nation states, toxic securities, credit default swaps, and silver. This video is both entertaining and important.

http://youtu.be/Wlmry45eI3g

[Arrogance]

Artful Dodgers
"How the U.S. regulates corporations is a massive problem. You [the United States] are creating so many corporations, you have no idea who owns them so you have no idea who should be taxed on them," he says. "They come and go [from the country] for almost no expense. That is probably the biggest single opportunity for tax evasion in your economy but a blind eye is turned to it."

The revelation that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has as much as $8 million invested in funds based in the Cayman Islands -- a popular tax haven -- has generated some publicity for the issue of offshore financial shelters, which are legal under U.S. law but often used to facilitate illegal tax evasion.
"Ordinarily people are expected to bear the burden of debt repayment, a burden that in Ireland is just beyond imagination," he says. He predicts more tax-boycotts like those in Ireland, and riots, like those in Greece, in the months to come. "I believe we're coming to a tipping point," he says.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/13/artful_dodgers?page=full

[Debt monetization or bust]

On QE...

Jim Sinclair

http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2012/4/15_Jim_Sinclair.html

[hubris and sin]

The Wall Street is thundering in
It's loaded with hubris and sin
It's full steal ahead
'Till justice is dead
And liberty's struck on the chin

The Limerick King

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-15-14/titanic-sinks?

[Write down debt or perish]

Michael Hudson: Debt: The Politics and Economics of Restructuring

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/04/michael-hudson-debt-politics-and.html

[Indifference]

Vote all you want: The flight plan doesn’t change

Fascism, the overtaking of government by corporations, is hidden behind euphoric, glorious terms; Free markets, free trade, globalism and the world economy. Most who subscribe to this pitch appear to be fearful of being cut out of the action, maybe not getting a piece of the global pie or at least a piece as big as they thought they should get. Socialism, the plan for the common people, will see many fall never to rise again.

The Flight plan

The plan has been for many decades to totally deconstruct the sovereign United States, reducing us to third world status so that no matter how hard we have worked in the past, or how hard we work in the future we will never regain our former stature. We will never be as free or empowered as a population as we once were.

http://ppjg.me/2012/04/12/vote-all-you-want-the-flight-plan-doesnt-change/

[samantha]

Investment is a major concern and does the banking sector providing the http://www.paydaymart.co.uk/ "payday loans" which proves to be beneficial for us or not...

[ppi calculator]

Michael Hudson: Debt: The Politics and Economics of Restructuring.
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Jose