The Committee to Save the World- Part Deux

There is a famous Time magazine cover from 1998, with a picture featuring 3 of the leading "regulators" at the time - Bob Rubin, Larry Summers and Alan Greenspan. The caption on the cover reads - "The committee to save the world". Of course, in retrospect, these were...

Gimme an “I”, Gimme an “O”, Gimme an “E”…

....Gimme an "R". Yes it’s true, during the Q&A Ben put the IOER back on the table. Many pundits had written the IOER off as a policy tool after the minutes from September 2011 suggested officials were too scared of zero rates. According to Fed and financial industry...

USD Wallpaper, Negative Nominal Yields & Cash ETFs

Last week was very interesting and very tiring. I started off Monday in Dallas at a dinner with a very lively Texan crowd, and a guest appearance by an ex-ECB governing council member. Mixing Texan-style EMU bearishness with southern Mediterranean central bankers was...

The ECB Makes the Fed Look Foolish

The following passage from the minutes of the September 2011 FOMC meeting has become market gospel on why the Fed will not lower the IOER - “Participants discussed whether to reduce the IOR rate, weighing potential benefits and costs. A number of participants judged...

Shh… Don’t Tell Anyone, Central Banks Manipulate Rates

It should come as no surprise to anyone that major commercial banks manipulate Libor submissions for their own benefit. The OTC derivatives markets was designed by the big banks, for the big banks, to ensure that as they set up their own private securities exchanges -...

Tell It to the Spoo

Given the history of EU leadership meetings, everyone has become conditioned to expect disappointment. The market set itself up for just such a result last Friday, and the short covering rip fest in risk assets shredded even the most hardened of bears! As our readers...