Don’t relax, do it

By now a more hawkish FOMC statement has settled into market prices - spoos are down, the USD is stronger and the curve is flatter (with CT30 actually rallying). However, by recent standards, these moves have been relatively minor. The market took an upbeat labor...

Did Jim Bullard find a cure for Ebola?

Back on September 15th I put out a commentary entitled "Are you ready for the big rally?". In that piece I tried to describe how Fed miscommunication, and market volatility, were likely to "rally" markedly as the taper process ended. This was of course was a...

A new love song for Janet

During this past year I have put forward a couple of love songs for Janet. The first was that Rocky Horror Picture Show classic - "Dammit Janet". And the second was from Guns and Roses - "Patience". Both seemed very appropriate during the time of a slow, steady and...

If only the DXY were in the SEP

The one thing I love about currency markets is their inability to be harnessed by policy makers. Decades (even centuries) have been spent designing exchange rate mechanisms, currency unions, accords, agreements and pegs. And of course even more time has been spent...

The dollar rains on the Fed’s parade

It was meant to be a time for celebration - a time for high fives and smug smiles. QE is ending. And QE worked. Those around the FOMC table, the ones who fought the good fight, should be out there taking a victory lap. But these victory laps for the good guys -...

Considerable Irrelevance and The Gap

While the words "considerable time" were kept in the statement, their relevance was destroyed in the press conference. Here are two key excerpts from Janet's post meeting discussion: "I want to emphasize that there is no  mechanical interpretation of what the term...