Having explained last month why he would not bail out the stock market again [3], (non-voting) Fed member Jim Bullard trotted out the usual vicissitudes this morning on Bloomberg TV trying to sound as upbeat and positive as possible: ECB QE is good for the US economy, low oil prices "unambiguously positive" for US, and ses unemployment below 5% in Q3. But then he unleashed the awful truth:
- *BULLARD SAYS HE'D LIKE TO GET OFF ZERO RATE SOONER, REASONABLE TO EXPECT RATE RISE JUNE OR JULY
Warning that "waiting to raise rates, risks falling behind the curve," which sent Treasury yields lower and stocks into a confused frenzy of "what did he say?" as they realize that the upbeat talk is just talk and The Fed will raise rates no matter - as we noted yesterday - it's the lesser of two evils [4].
- *BULLARD SAYS MARKETS TOO DOVISH ON FED RATE OUTLOOK (so sell bonds and buy stocks)
- *BULLARD SAYS ECB QE DRIVING DOWN INTEREST RATES IN U.S. (nothing to do with shitty underlying growth in US)
- *BULLARD SEES UNEMPLOYMENT BELOW 5% IN THIRD QUARTER (while the labor force collapses)
And then...
- *BULLARD SAYS IT'S REASONABLE TO EXPECT RATE RISE JUNE OR JULY (wait what!!)
- *BULLARD SAYS ZERO INTEREST RATE NOT RIGHT FOR THIS ECONOMY (but what about my stocks!)
- *BULLARD: WAITING TO RAISE RATES RISKS FALLING BEHIND CURVE (nooo!)
He also seemed to dismiss Yellen's "transitory" comments on Oil:
- *BULLARD SAYS OIL PRICE DECLINE APPEARS VERY PERSISTENT
And then really put his foot in it by admitting that "if TIPS don't improve [he] would be concerned that [Fed] credibility was eroding"
