(CNBC)
That was the take of the MSM of Ben Bernanke’s words over the past few
days. To some extent Ben’s soft talk has had a beneficial impact. “Soothing”
was how Paul Mccully from PIMCO described it. But the market overall
does not seem to be listening. The NY close stank. Currencies, bonds and
stocks moved to risk off mode again.
I heard different words from Bernanke. I heard him say:
or raise taxes.”
We have been in an environment of crisis/emergency monetary
and fiscal policy for two years. We have ZIRP, QE, stimulus, 10%
deficits and total debt exploding.
Bernanke said again today that these emergency responses must be
continued far into the future. This high-octane life support is
essential to keep the patient alive. Never before in history has so much
gas been thrown on a financial fire. And if you believe Ben, we have to
continue doing that or we die.
The reason the markets are punky in spite of the all pro MSM cheer
leading and those "soothing" words from the Chairman is that the markets
are not buying Ben’s words. They shouldn’t. Ben should take note of the
reaction. At least he would better understand what he is up against.
My read and apparently the market’s is:
definition not well.
When Ben can stand before the cameras and put his policies where his
mouth is by ending the emergency monetary steps and work with other
leaders toward a more balanced fiscal approach the markets will listen
and respond. In the meantime he is not going to fool the audience that
really matters. That audience is the capital markets, they are not
buying what Bernanke’s selling.
Dumpster,
I think I would rather take an injection of morphine and THEN read Leo!
It might be a bit less painful that way.
++ on a roll...
LOL
leo, be sure to take physical delivery, of those chinese solar panels. they may yet prove to have value
Yes, funny. Solar panels, wind-farms, global warming; human beings proving once again that they need an adult in the room with them.
Ha. Made me smile.
Leo: double dip on deck - count on it.
Personally, I favor a staircase shaped "recovery"; that goes like this, bottom, bottom, bottom, new bottom, another bottom, etc. Mere double-dips are too restrictive.
Hold on guys...Re-read Leo's post closely.
THEN, IGNORE the GOM, the current WARS, the possibility of add'l wars and several dozen other 'little' things that might (or might not) happen.
There. Now, do you see it the way Leo Ben sees it?
</sarcasm>
How about we just send our paycheck directly to the central bank and streamline this whole process?
same story, he is either a lying sak-o-sheet or a buffoon. either way we are screwed
Yet another nice piece Bruce. I ain't buying what he is selling.
...
A little O/T, but...
Cognitive Dissonance, you might want to consider "Why all the Lies?" the next time you want to write another paper. Your "Insanity" is fantastic, and looking more at .gov and Fed/Wall St. LIES might yield some great insight.
I agree..... a perfect project for CD.
On another note, Bruce, Tyler, Cheeky and many others unmentioned are equipped with sophisticated bullshit filters on their eyes and ears. They see and hear the movements of our Great Masters and interpret them into quantifiable objective common sense.
BB's job is not to present facts to those with sophisticated filters. They already know what's up, and that includes the capital markets. It defies common sense to think the Fed Chair is an instrument of true awareness for we the sheeple. You need to dig much deeper to find reality. And much of it you will never find.
BB's main job is keeping Ma and Pa Kettle calmed down so they don't run the bank and start stashing under the mattress. His other job is to work as Capo for the Boyz and keep the Critters operating in a world of blind ignorance ( which means keeping Ma and Pa off Critter asses ).
Exactly, but how long until the bank runs? And Forbes publishing an article about gold being the fundamental currency, what a surprise! New holes in the denial dike, that. I guess the US population will be the last to
see ... to borrow fofoa's recent metaphor re. hyperinflacton, it will happen suddenly, like an avalanche.
I'd invest in THAT.
Title should have been: What's Ben smoking?
Crack is a hell of a drug.
Crack and avarice and CYA all have a certain similar disease-like quality. In each case denial of the situation leads the involved parties to commit more of the same behavior, thus excerbating the problem, in a feedback loop.
BUT, you don't usually see crackheads on TV trying to convince the entire world that it is in everyone's best interest to allow the JUNKY continue doing it their way.
('cause we're pretty sure we'll have everything back to roughly 'normal' real-soon-now)
Should read: "If the patient needs life support, the patient is dead."
At the present time, with our present requirements, we require more new money than the entire world added together saves in a year, each and every year. That was when the world's other requirements were less, and when it was doing better. How can it be? It can't.
We, the public, cannot be trusted with the truth. That's why we have extend and pretend and why all that we hear from the government are lies. That's why we have mark to model and why we can't audit the Fed. That's why we have TBTF. That's why there have been no criminal convictions. It's because we cannot be trusted, and why, on the other hand, we are asked to trust the government, to trust the politicians, and to trust the bankers.
Better to have Great Depression II than tell the truth.
The ground from under unborn feet.
Penalty: Let history tell
Ben didn't realize he created a tiger with his Zirp, QE and other alphabet programs but he did and now he can't get off of its back.
Apolgies, yet listening to DMX and it seems appropriate (per se) so...
"I kick it to Bennie to try to help him understand
Hit him with work, cause yo, that's my little man
He asked a few questions bout the game and I told him
So when he made a bad move it was my place to scold him
Never told him nuttin wrong, kept it fair
Didn't listen, so I might as well have been talkin to the air
Everybody makes mistakes, a mistake is aight
But if it ain't, I'ma tell you straight, time to say goodnight
Nobody likes to be played, regardless of the relationship
But Bennie's f--kin up big time...
What you did was put on another pair of shoes
And they just happened to be too big
What you did was stupid (damn) real stupid
Well Bennie I gave you a chance and what did you do?
Threw it back in my face so...
...(BLAM) aight?
Women Prefer Men Holding State Bonds, Japan Ad Says
http://www.bloomberg.co.jp/apps/news?pid=90970900&sid=awCJbvaUWSgU
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese women are seeking men who invest in government bonds, according to an advertisement being run by the Ministry of Finance.
“I want my future husband to be diligent about money,” a 27-year-old woman says in an ad being run in free magazines promoting a fixed-rate, three-year note that Japan started selling last week. “Playboys are no good.” She’s one of five women featured in the page, which says “Men who hold JGBs are popular with women!!”
The ministry commissioned the ads to appeal to citizens for money at a time when record government borrowing threatens to outstrip demand. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took office yesterday, said he doesn’t have an instant fix to rein in the world’s largest public debt.
The government’s plan to attract marrying-age men comes after a campaign aimed at retirees started last August. That push featured Junko Kubo, a former anchor on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, in ads placed in the backs of taxi cabs. Kubo followed Koyuki, an actress and model who in 2003 appeared in “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise as well as posters for government bonds.
“It strikes of desperation,” Christian Carrillo, a senior interest-rate strategist in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA said about the ad campaign. “I doubt this will be a successful strategy to attract retail investors.”
Individuals can buy government debt at local banks for 10,000 yen ($109) according to the ads. The finance ministry in 2002 hired Koushiro Matsumoto, an actor in Kabuki theater, and model Norika Fujiwara in its bond campaigns.
Japan’s government debt amounted to a record 882.9 trillion yen as of March 31, according to the Ministry of Finance. A 600 billion yen sale of 30-year bonds yesterday attracted bids for 2.25 times the amount on offer, the least since April 2004.
Biggest Market
Japan has the world’s largest bond market, followed by the U.S., based on a ranking of 35 nations by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, using data through September 2009. Kan, the former finance minister, takes office facing a debt burden that has increased by almost 80 percent in a decade and it is equivalent to 180 percent of the nation’s annual economic output.
“I don’t think fiscal rehabilitation can be done overnight,” he told reporters last week.
Moody’s Investors Service rates Japan’s debt at Aa2, the third-highest investment grade, with a stable outlook. Standard & Poor’s cut the outlook on Japan’s AA grade in January, citing diminishing “flexibility” to cope with the nation’s swelling debt load.
Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s decision to quit last week “has no credit implications, but that in itself is positive news, given reports that Japan’s ship of state is rudderless,” Thomas Byrne, senior vice president of Moody’s, wrote in a statement released June 7.
Declining Holdings
“The world is full of dirty shirts in terms of excessive debt,” Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview June 4.
Japanese households have started to cut their holdings of the nation’s debt. Their ownership of government securities declined to 35 trillion yen as of Dec. 31 from a record 36.7 trillion yen a year earlier, according to the Bank of Japan.
Masaaki Kaizuka, director of debt management at the Ministry of Finance, aims to change that.
The ministry started selling three-year bonds tailored for individuals on June 3, after conducting a market survey that showed pent-up demand for shorter-term securities, Kaizuka said.
‘Untouched Group’
“What we can do is try to attract an untouched group of people to find a different sort of investor,” Kaizuka said. Shorter bonds are seen as safer because they mature faster.
This campaign for JGBs was crafted by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising company, which the ministry chose through an annual bidding process, Kaizuka said.
“Retail government bonds, which provide the peace of mind that women want, are now available in three-year maturities with a fixed rate,” the ad says.
The bonds are called “Kotei3,” meaning “Fixed3” because they mature in three years.
Japanese government securities maturing in 2013 yield 0.176 percent as of 3:26 p.m. in Tokyo, versus 1.20 percent for same- maturity debt in the U.S.
The yield turns to about 1.38 percent in Japan after accounting for falling prices in the economy. The so-called real yield in the U.S. is negative 1 percent.
Japan’s bonds handed investors a 1.32 percent gain this year, versus 3.96 percent for sovereign debt globally, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.
Japanese Bonds are the new Aftershave guaranteed to get you laid. Now they should make a cologne/aftershave called Japanese bond.
Somebody needs to do a Burma Shave jingle.
Searching for a man?
Never mind about his wand!
What you should be checking out
Is the size of his BOND!
Perfect! Thanks!
You know what they say: large portfolio of JGBs, large . . .
So would it be correct to say that Japanese women have a yen for heavy bondage?
+
That's very punny !
Hmmm... Bonds for poontang. I know there's a word for this......
Bonding,yum
+ 1 ......I suppose FRNs and yuans are only good for ass wiping and illegal drug purchases these days. Old Japanese proverb : Girl always want tangible security as payment for love.
Di you spellcheck that?
Di you? Heh, heh. Just joshin' ya.
Ah Bruce,
You are easily one of the best ZH contributors....
They have no backup plan. Either this works, or the whole thing implodes.
Yea, BP had a backup plan.
ouch... good one.
blue or red wire. your pick you got 3 more seconds :)
Yeah. Keep 'em coming.
The guy has become a laughing stock. I imagine he is actually scared shitless about what appears to be actually happening. He's doing stand up for God's sake.
Ben doesn't need YOU. Ben can do this act ALONE.
He often does.
I depends. Does the patient has insurance?
This is why I love the comments, you read opinions from all sides, some good ribbing, and when you least expect it, a LMAO moment. Thanks!
+1
He is ready for QE II, and you better bet your bottom dollar on this...