Janet Yellen

So… the Fed may not be able to raise interest rates because Wall Street has $12 trillion in derivatives that could be affected?

Since the Fed can't be bothered with an objective analysis covering both sides the most important debt issue for America, we go to Pew which recently concluded an analysis on the impact of student debt and found that "Student debt burdens are weighing on the economic fortunes of younger Americans, as households headed by young adults owing student debt lag far behind their peers in terms of wealth accumulation." 

St. Louis Fed James Bullard said on Friday that he expects the Fed to start raising rates sometime near the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Regardless of which side of the low labor force participation rate argument you stand on, it is hard to argue that it is simply a function of retiring "baby boomers." While political arguments are great for debate, it is the economics that ultimately drive employment. While the Fed has inflated asset prices to the satisfaction of Wall Street, it has done little for the middle class. It is ultimately fiscal policy that will help business create employment, the problem is that businesses need less of it while government officials keep piling on more. In the meantime, stop blaming "baby boomers" for not retiring - they simply can't afford to.

Last week the Fed's Janet Yellen warned of a small cap bubble and now German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says in a speech in Munich today that "monetary policy must reduce its dominant role" to allow a return to "reasonable" interest rates. He did not stop there though...

• *SCHAEUBLE SAYS RATES NOT FULFILLING THEIR ECONOMIC FUNCTION NOW
• *SCHAEUBLE: FINANCIAL MARKETS HAVE ALMOST 'EXCESSIVE CONFIDENCE'
• *SCHAEUBLE SAYS MARKET LIQUIDITY POINTS TO NEW BUBBLES

Don't fight the Fed... or the German finance minister... (though with the DAX and S&P at record highs today, he must be talking about bonds or Russian stocks as the bubble that is excessively confident)

While many dismiss the impact of the "baby boomer" generation moving into retirement, the reality is likely to be far different. If the current survey is representative of that particular group, the drag on the financial markets and economy over the next decade could be quite substantial.

There's not much good news for housing these days. For a little while, the Fed's suppression of interest rates juiced housing enough to distract Americans from weak job creation and stagnant real wages. Don't have a job? No problem! Just borrow against the appreciation of your house to feed your family. But Yellen's interest rate wand looks to be out of magic. The government had a pipe dream of white picket fences for everyone. But Americans can't refinance their way to wealth. Especially in the Greater Depression.

"Notwithstanding the view that we may see S&P get up to 1950 (+/- a little) over the next fortnight or so, over the rest of Q2 and Q3 we could see a decent correction of up to 20% in the risk-on trade. Low 1700s in the S&P attracts, and thereafter, depending on weekly closes, low 1600s/mid-1500s S&P could be in play. For now, however, the key level to the upside is 2000 as a weekly close on the S&P – if achieved then I would have to revisit my bearish bias for the belly of 2014. To the downside a weekly close below 1770 would, I feel, easily put a 1700 S&P within reach. Beyond that I would need to assess data and price action at the time before highlighting the next set of levels, but I would not be surprised to see policymakers again attempt to boost markets later this year - there should be no surprise if this happens because the reaction function of central bankers has become depressingly predictable."

Sadly, as far as markets are concerned, the more Sturm und Drang over Ukraine, the better... this all further strengthens the Narrative of Central Bank Omnipotence – the market-controlling common knowledge that market outcomes are the result of central bank policy rather than anything that happens in the real economy. How can you know if this Narrative starts to waver or shift? If and when gold starts to work. This is what gold means in the modern age... not a store of value or some sort of protection against geopolitical instability... but an insurance policy against massive central bank error and loss of control.

One can’t help but look at the situations transpiring around the globe and hope: things are different this time. The problem is being different puts it right back in line with that other caveat: history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And so lies the most troubling aspect facing not only the U.S. economy, but quite possibly the world as whole. For if things rhyme anything inline with past events in history: We’re all in a dung heap of QE based minutia, with Geo-political ramifications the “intellectual” crowd never contemplated as possible – let alone probable.

During this week’s Senate hearings, Janet Yellen was asked by Senator Bernie Sanders if the U.S. was a capitalist democracy or has morphed into an oligarchy. While readers of this site already know the answer to this question, which was recently proved empirically by a Princeton and Northwestern academic study, it was still stunning to note her unwillingness to answer the question...

It is only one word, but it has been repeated so many times by FOMC members in the past year or so it has taken on the imprimatur of officialdom vernacular. Whenever speaking of bubbles, these policymakers inevitably include the word, “obvious.” Long is the list of internal literature that purports to place bubbles in the same category with the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography – we know it only when we see it. In that respect, “obvious” is the perfect qualifier that situates even the brightest of the PhD’s in the same herd as the little guy investor. It would be hard to blame them in disaster if that were actually the case since “everyone” else missed it too. The “good” news is that we will know for sure, including Yellen and her FOMC conspirators, at some point once it all becomes perfectly clear in hindsight. What a way to craft scarily intrusive policy!

Some people are either born or nurtured into a time warp and never seem to escape. That’s Janet Yellen’s apparent problem with the “bathtub economics” of the 1960s neo-Keynesians. As has now been apparent for decades, the Great Inflation of the 1970s was a live fire drill that proved Keynesian activism doesn’t work. That particular historic trauma showed that “full employment” and “potential GDP” were imaginary figments from scribblers in Ivy League economics departments—not something that is targetable by the fiscal and monetary authorities or even measureable in a free market economy. Even more crucially, the double digit inflation, faltering growth and repetitive boom and bust macro-cycles of the 1970s and early 1980s proved in spades that interventionist manipulations designed to achieve so-called “full-employment” actually did the opposite—that is, they only amplified economic instability and underperformance as the decade wore on.

Reflecting proudly on how her words were received (surprise!) dovishly yesterday during her congressional hearing (and stocks closed green), we are sure Fed Chairmanwoman Janet Yellen will be brimming with "nothing can stop me now" confidence as she heads into the ring with the Senate Budget Committee. The big headline from yesterday's Q&A that "the recent flattening out in housing activity could prove more protracted than currently expected," will we are sure be caveated with excess hope and exuberance today as yet another set of politicians attempt to pin her back down to 6 months. The biggest thing to watch, we suspect, if she reiterates her "sell small caps" recommendation...

• China’s Trade Unexpectedly Rises (BBG)
• 'We're already not in Ukraine' - rebel east readies secession vote (Reuters)
• Pro-Russian Separatists in Ukraine Reject Putin's Call to Delay Vote (WSJ)
• Vietnam’s Stocks Post Biggest Loss in Decade on China Tensions (BBG)
• Hedge Funds Extend Their Slide (WSJ)
• Carney Looks to Untested Tools as House Prices Boom (BBG)
• New Draghi Era Seen on Hold at ECB as Euro Area Recovers (BBG)
• Woman With Printer Shows the Digital Ease of Bogus Cash (BBG)
• Regulators See Growing Financial Risks Outside Traditional Banks (WSJ)