Janet Yellen

As regular readers know, the biggest legacy disconnect in the US banking system is the divergence between commercial bank loans which most recently amounted to $7.32 trillion, a decrease of $9 billion for the week, and are at the same the same level when Lehman filed for bankruptcy having not grown at all in all of 2013 (blue line below), and their conventionally matched liability: deposits, which increased by $60 billion in the past week to $9.63 trillion, an all time high. The spread between these two key monetary components - at least in a non-centrally planned world - which also happen to determine the velocity of money in circulation (as traditionally it is private banks that create money not the Fed as a result of loan demand) is now at a record $2.3 trillion.

U.S Government would rather default than lose their bullion.

After reading the coverage of Janet Yellen’s Fed Chair nomination yesterday, it feels as though it’s 2006 all over again. Confidence in our central bankers seems to be approaching all-time highs, little more than five years after it collapsed alongside the financial sector. The overwhelmingly positive response to Yellen’s nomination is worrisome because, well, it’s overwhelming positive. As Galbraith once astutely observed: “In economics, the majority is always wrong.”

• The ice breaks; fiscal talks set (The Hill); Ryan steps up to shape a deal (The Hill), as predicted here yesterday
• Republicans consider short-term U.S. debt ceiling increase (Reuters)
• Shutdown Standoff Shows Signs of a Thaw (WSJ)
• JPMorgan Clients in Cash as Schwab’s Options Hedge Default (BBG)
• Mitch McConnell, Senate GOP search for way out (Politico)
• Meredith Whitney Winds Down Brokerage Unit After Setting Up Fund (BBG)
• Washington Budget Chaos Keeps Fed Rates Low for Longer (BBG)
• Chinese Premier Outlines US Debt Concerns (FT)
• Saudis brace for 'nightmare' of U.S.-Iran rapprochement (Reuters)
• Obama Urges Action on Yellen’s Fed Nomination (Reuters)
• Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan Freed After Kidnap (WSJ)

It was a pretty interesting day in the market, of course, since two Fed-related items were happening. First, as was initially reported last night, "Damn It" Janet Yellen was nominated by Obama to be the Chairhuman, once bearded-wonder Bernanke splits in January. It's a little odd that in the midst of all this rancor Obama decided to address this bit of not-at-all-urgent business, but maybe he wanted to remind the market that all that matters is QE-infinity.

Unlike her predecessors, Janet Yellen has never had a youthful dalliance with hawkish monetary ideas. Before taking charge of the Fed both Alan Greenspan, and to a lesser extent Ben Bernanke, had advocated for the benefits of a strong currency and low inflation and had warned of the dangers of overly accommodative policy and unnecessary stimulus. (Both largely abandoned these ideals once they took the reins of power, but their urge to stimulate may have been restrained by a vestigial bias against the excesses of Keynesianism). Janet Yellen, who has been on the liberal/dovish end of the monetary spectrum for her entire professional career, has no such baggage. As a result, we can expect her to never waver in her belief that stimulus is the answer to every economic question.

Today 3:00 pm nomination by Obama of Janet Yellen as the next Fed chair was hardly news (certainly wasn't news to stocks which briefly dipped below their 200 DMA) in the aftermath of Larry Summers' self-elimination, but nonetheless the sellside brigade was quick to praise her now official nomination for one simple reason: it means more of the same Bernanke policies that have done nothing to benefit broad America, but more importantly have resulted in year after year of near-record Wall Street bonuses, and unprecedented asset bubbles. Why shouldn't the banks then be giddy with excitement that the status quo will not only continue, but the monthly $85 billion in liquidity may in fact increase in time? Below is a selection, courtesy of Bloomberg, of the most vocal praises sung on behalf of the former San Fran Fed president byt the numerous banks that currently exist only thanks to the Fed's actions in 2008.

It is worth remembering that Goldman, to much fanfare and media attention, “told clients” in November 2007, to sell gold. On November 29, 2007, Goldman recommended that investors sell gold in 2008 and it named the strategy as one of its ‘Top 10 Tips’ for the year.

• Janet Yellen, a Backer of Pushing the Fed's Policy Boundaries (WSJ)
• Jos. A. Bank proposes to buy Men's Wearhouse for $2.3 billion (Reuters)
• J.P. Morgan to Cull Business Clients (WSJ)
• RBS Said to Pass Currency Trader Chats to FCA Amid Probe (BBG)
• Prosecutors give SAC settlement ultimatum (FT)
• U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes (Reuters)
• Bill Comes Due for Brazil's Middle Class (WSJ)
• US expected to slash aid to Egyptian government (AP)
• Samsung launches world's first smartphone with curved screen (Reuters)
• Microsoft’s $7.2 Billion Nokia Bet Not Luring Apps (BBG)
• China raises hurdles for foreign banks (FT)

For all expectations of a big jump in US futures overnight on the largely priced in Janet Yellen nomination announcement which is due at 3 pm today, the move so far has been very much contained, as expected, with a modest 90 minute halflife, as the markets' prevailing concern continues to be whether the debt ceiling negotiation will be concluded by the October 17 deadline or if it would stretch further forcing the government to prioritize payments. There is however some hope with Bloomberg reporting that some possible paths out of the debt impasse are starting to emerge with less than a week before U.S. borrowing authority lapses after Obama said he could accept a short-term debt-limit increase without policy conditions that set the terms for future talks. Whether this materializes or just leads to more empty posturing and televized press conferences is unclear, although as Politico reports, the stakes for republicans are getting increasingly nebulous with some saying they are "losing" the fight, while the core GDP constituency is actually liking the government shutdown.

UPDATE: For the 3rd time tonight 'someone' has ramped AUDJPY in a failed attempt to spark S&P futures higher

When Larry Summers stepped away from the nomination for Fed Chair, S&P 500 futures ramped vertically by over 20 points. The reaction to the nomination of Janet Yellen managed a limp 6 point surge in S&P futures. Worse still, it took 24 hours for the Summers-Out ramp to be cut in half... Yellen's 'ramp' has already given back half of her gains in 90 minutes. It seems The White House needs change of narrative - or just another bargaining chip to piss the Republicans off - and judging by the "sudden" rip higher in AUDJPY, 'someone' is trying desperately to spark some momentum ignition... but for now - it's not working. Timing is everything we guess.

All the histrionics over the next Fed chairman, pardon chairwoman, choice are over. WSJ reports that Obama is set to announce Mr., pardon Mrs Janet Yellen as Bernanke's replacement tomorrow at 3 pm at the White House. "The nomination would conclude a long and unusually public debate about Mr. Obama's choice which started last June when he said that Ben Bernanke wouldn't be staying in the post after his term ends in January. Mr. Obama gave serious consideration to his former economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who pulled out in September after facing resistance from Democrats in the Senate." However, while a Yellen announcement, largely priced in, in a normal environment would have been good for at least 10-20 S&P points, with the debt ceiling showdown the far more immediate concern, the choice of the Chairwoman may not be the buying catalyst that it would have otherwise been.

"You don't need me to tell you that the developed countries, the US, Europe, Japan, are insolvent.... I don't want to paint  a picture of clarity about the workout of this thing. Because once a society, a financial system gets in a position of the central bank being trapped, and being unwilling or frightened of stopping this merry go round, things get very dicey. They may move to stopping the money printing, markets collapse, then they panic, go the other way... We are in a period where confidence should be jostled and it could be lost at any time for a variety of reasons, how this works out nobody knows.... There is one right thing to do right now: after five years of 0% interest rates, after $3.5 trillion here and several trillion sprinkled around the globe, this Fed chairman, the next Fed chairman, should say: "We've done enough. It is up to the president and Congress to remove the impediments for growth and provide the catalysts for growth, and help this country grow. The country is capable of growing at a far faster rate than it has been. And I think that the Fed, which is the only central bank which has a dual mandate, has embraced this dual mandate in a very harmful way because they actually revel in the role of being Atlas, holding up the world by themselves."

"Steve Jobs was really a pretty terrible man... and I just don't believe bad guys do well in the long run," is the subtle way the billionaire fund managed describes the ex Apple CEO before shifting his view to the broader market. A spell-bound Maria Bartiromo was looking for any silver lining when Julian Robertson responded ominously, "we're in the middle of a kind of bubble market," and when they "prick the bubble, there will probably be a pretty bad reaction." With views on The Fed's easy-money, Twitter, and market frothiness, Robertson is a breath of truthy fresh air that we suspect will not be back on the money-honey's show anytime soon...

With the government shutdown stretching into an improbable 4th day (and with every additional day added on, the likelihood that the impasse continues even longer and hit the debt ceiling X-Date of October 17 becomes greater), today's monthly Non-Farm Payroll data has quickly become No-Farm Payroll. However, just like on day when Europe is closed we still get a ramp into the European close, expect at least several vacuum tube algos to jump the gun at 8:29:59:999 and try to generate some upward momentum ignition in stocks and downward momentum in gold. In addition to no economic data released in the US, President Obama announced last night he has cancelled his trip to Bali, Indonesia, to attend the APEC conference and instead to focus on budget negotiations back at home - which is ironic because his latest story is that he will not negotiate, so why not just not negotiate from Asia? Ah, the optics of shutdown.