Testimony

Probably far more anticipated than the monetary announcements out of BOE (which just announced it is keeping rates at a record low of 0.5%, but no more QE), or even the ECB, and certainly far more than the latest and not greatest European summit which begins today, is the 9am testimony out of the House Agriculture Committee by one "Honorable" Jon S. Corzine, as well as the Q&A that will follow. Naturally the Q&A will be the focus, but as for the prepared remarks, they have just been released and are presented below. The choice selection: "Obviously on the forefront of everyone’s mind – including mine – are the varying reports that customer accounts have not been reconciled. I was stunned when I was told on Sunday, October 30, 2011, that MF Global could not account for many hundreds of millions of dollars of client money. I remain deeply concerned about the impact that the unreconciled and frozen funds have had on MF Global’s customers and others. As the chief executive officer of MF Global, I ultimately had overall responsibility for the firm. I did not, however, generally involve myself in the mechanics of  the clearing and settlement of trades, or in the movement of cash and collateral. Nor was I an expert on the complicated rules and regulations governing the various different operating businesses that comprised MF Global. I had little expertise or experience in those operational aspects of the business. Again, I want to emphasize that, since my resignation from MF Global on November 3, 2011, I have not had access to the information that I would need to understand what happened. It is extremely difficult for me to reconstruct the events that occurred during the chaotic days and the last hours leading up to the bankruptcy filing....I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. I do not know which accounts are unreconciled or whether the unreconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules. Moreover, there were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days, and I do not know, for example, whether there were operational errors at MF Global or elsewhere, or whether banks  and counterparties have held onto funds that should rightfully have been returned to MF Global." Translation - he pleads da FIF.

Bernanke's prepared remarks to Senate in the second day of the bi-annual presentation monetary policy presentation will be identical to those from yesterday. The only difference will come in teh Q&A, which is not so much Q&A as political grandstanding by a bunch of muppets. For those who wish to listen as QE3 is priced in for the third time in as many days, and express other masochistic tendencies, tune in to the C-SPAN webcast below.

Watch live the first of two official monetary policy testimonies by Ben Bernanke, today being before Congress, and thus Ron Paul, tomorrow before the Senate. Among the critical items to be discussed are the role of fiscal policy, whether there will be QE3, and how (and when) the Fed will proceed with future rate hikes. Mostly, it is expected be a whole lot of hot air. Full text of the report can be read here. The reason everything is surging is because, as predicted, the Chairsatan appears to have just ushered in QE3: "The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying a need for additional policy support. The Federal Reserve remains prepared to respond should economic developments indicate that an adjustment of monetary policy would be appropriate."

It's that time again when almost half a year after his first 2011 presentation to Congress and Senate in the semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins, Bernanke will update the Hill with his latest outlook on monetary policy. And while the first such testimony earlier in the year was uneventful as it occurred at a time when the flawed belief that the US economy was growing was still prevalent, there is a peculiar sense of deja vu'ness. As JPM's Michael Feroli observes: " it may be helpful to recall last July's Humphrey-Hawkins testimony when, like now, the growth data had been seriously disappointing. Bernanke's testimony fell flat: the Chairman sounded tone-deaf, discussing plans for exit strategies, and markets rolled over, with stocks off over 1% on the day." Feroli continues: "The Chairman does seem to learn from his miscues -- there haven't been any further Maria Bartiromo incidents -- and we expect he will be more mindful of the downward momentum of the recent data." Does this mean that the Chairman may hint at a change in monetary strategy, especially if July regional Fed updates confirm the ugly NFP data? Most say no, but not Bill Gross, who as is well known, expects the first QE3 hints to be dropped in August. Perhaps Bernanke will decide to surprise the market again and pull that forward by one month? Read the full Feroli note below.

Update: Hearing has been delayed until 3 pm.

While we await to find and bring to our readers the channel that will carry today's hearing between the House Financial Services Committee on the topic of "Federal Reserve Lending Disclosure: FOIA, Dodd-Frank, and the Data Dump" chaired by Ron Paul and Fed and NY Fed General Counsels, Thomas C. Baxter, Jr., and Scott G. Alvarez, below we present their prepared testimony that was just released by the New York Fed. The key section from the testimony: "We remain concerned that a more rapid release of information about borrowers accessing the discount window and emergency lending facilities could impair the ability of the Federal Reserve to provide the liquidity needed to ensure the smooth working of the financial system. If institutions believe that publication of their use of Federal Reserve lending facilities will impair public confidence in the institution, then institutions may choose not to participate in these facilities. Experience has shown that banks’ unwillingness to use the discount window can result in more volatile short-term interest rates and reduced financial market liquidity that, in turn, can contribute to declining asset prices and reduced lending to consumers and small businesses." Luckily, courtesy of $1.6 trillion in excess reserves, and the stigma now associated with Discount Window borrowings, for everyone except for Dexia, we doubt the Fed will ever have to worry about the discount window before the banking kleptoracy blows itself up once again.

The following is another exclusive transcript put together by the guys at Santangel's Review. In his must read testimony in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Warren Buffett explains what he believes saved the global financial system during the depths of the crisis.

How can the SEC's Office of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation "provide the Commission with sophisticated analysis..." when there's no one running the Office of Data & Data Analysis?

Barney Frank quizzing Ben Bernanke has got to be the funniest thing one can see today. So here is your chance to laugh. While not expected to say much if anything of note, using the same testimony as yesterday, Bernanke may engage in a few Freudian slips before the Frank, who has already asked the key question - should the Fed engage in more bond buying in light of the oil price spike. Don't expect a response. From C-Span: "Today, the House
Financial Services Committee can expect to hear more of the same from
 Bernanke as he appears before lawmakers for the second time this week.
They will likely question the Fed Chief on what the Central Bank is
doing to jolt the economy into increased recovery. Committee members
will also want to continue yesterday's line of questioning on how the
Fed is reacting to oil prices that have been going up up up in the wake
of unrest in the Mideast and North Africa."

As oil (read Brent) looks set to take out interim highs following news of a rapid escalation in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, it will be interesting if Ben Bernanke, in his first of two semi-annual Humphrey Hawkins reports before Congress and the Senate, will actually discuss what is relevant: namely the inflationary surge in every single commodity, and plunge in the dollars, and the Fed's continuing preposterous policy of only caring about the Russell 2000 instead of actually doing anything to improve the economy. Reuters' advance look of today's presentation before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 am which will be webcast on Zero Hedge is quite amusing: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely remain skeptical about the strength of the economic recovery in testimony on Tuesday, despite recent data pointing to improvement, signaling the central bank is unlikely to cut short its $600 billion stimulus plan." Why skeptical? Has he not been listening to the endless stream of permabulls on TeeVee every day, not to mention the teleprompter, all of whom have invested their entire reserve of credibility in lying to the public that we are in a V-shaped recovery and what not. Or is the economic recovery only and always merely a function of the Fed's ongoing injection of $100+ billion directly into the banking system (and the Russell 2000)? Because oddly the "pundits" always continue to ignore that one minor point.

Don't be jiving us with Fedspeak Bro!

Following loud complaints by Zero Hedge over the weekend about the retention of Bernanke's FCIC testimony from the public's eye, yesterday the commission caved and agreed to release Bernanke's November 17, 2009 89-page closed session confidential transcript, in which, among other things, Bernanke complains about the... blogosphere. Arguably, among the most amusing comments are the circumstances which bring Bernanke to lament the surge of alternative media. On page 68, the Chairsatan, in responding to a question of why nobody could predict the disastrous consequences of Vissarionovich Jr's actions, we see another face of Bernanke - that of the man who deflects his gross incompetence which almost destroyed civilization as we know it... to those who worry too much: "I think there were people -- there were people saying -- including people at the Fed but others as well -- saying, in the year before the crisis, that risk was being underpriced, that  spreads were very narrow, that markets seemed ebullient, that liquidity was, in some sense, excessive. There were -- you know, the way I would put it is, I think there were people -- not necessarily the same people -- identifying various parts of the problems. You know, there were people who were concerned about derivatives, there were people that were concerned about subprime mortgages, there were  people concerned about the overall credit environment, there were people who were concerned about off-balance-sheet vehicles. But I think notwithstanding the claims of one or two people out there who are now sort of living on the fact that they, quote, anticipated in the crisis, I  would still say that the interaction of these things, the “perfect storm” aspect was so complicated and large, that I was certainly not aware, for what it’s worth -- and it could be just my deficiency -- but I was not aware of anybody who had any kind of comprehensive warning. There are people identified -- and the trouble is -- and particularly in this blogosphere we live in now -- at any given moment, there are people identifying 19 different problems, crises." So there you have it: the next time the entire financial system collapses, which should be within a few years at most, and unless Mars bails the Earth out, this will be the last collapse, it will be the blogosphere's fault again, for identifying too many problems again, and for supposedly 'shouting wolf' when it has been right all along.

Watch Bernanke sweet-talking his puppets in the Senate Budget Committee live and commercial free after the jump.

Same prepared remarks, different audience, identical theater. Watch the full thing live and commercial free here (CSPAN).

Zero Hedge deconstructs every lie and prevarication in Lloyd Blankfein's prepared statement ahead of tomorrow's Senate Hearing on "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis"

Click here for a webcast of the Joint Economic Committee's Q&A with Ben Bernanke live and commercial free. Note - there is no mention of "extended period" in Bernanke's prepared remarks. Watch for a discussion of just that, as well as questions on asset sales, debt levels, GSEs, inflation, and, of course, when interest rates will be raised. Full Bernanke testimony in which he sees a "moderate recovery."