Showing posts with label interest rates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interest rates. Show all posts

Fed Chair Janet Yellen on monetary policy: "the best way to build credibility was to lie"



Not new to BSI readers, but Janet Yellen the new head of the Fed admits that the best way to build credibility is to lie to the idiot public. At least she is honest about it, unlike Banana Ben Bernanke. 





From a previous black swan post:

In fact, San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen mentioned in a speech that central bankers openly lie as a matter of policy. She recounts her discussions with two international central bankers at her first Jackson Hole meeting:
Two of the leading central bankers in the world took me aside to help educate me about how to conduct myself so I would be an upstanding central bank citizen. They offered me the very same advice: Good central bankers never admit they pursue stabilization policy. Such an admission would reduce the confidence of the public in  your commitment to price stability and therefore undermine your credibility and effectiveness as a monetary policymaker. I responded that I appreciated the advice, especially from such distinguished central bankers, but that it left me a bit confused. They seemed to be telling me that the best way to build credibility was to lie, specifically about how I understood the objectives and how I intended to conduct monetary policy.


Am I the only one who wishes we had a more attractive Fed Chairwoman? I mean if we are going to select a woman for the most powerful position in the country, Obama could have done much better. Admit it--you would feel much better being lied to by an attractive woman like this below, compared to grandma Yellen.

On a personal note--women in business suits (with stockings) are incredibly sexy. You mind explodes with all of the possibilities--like ripping of her stockings, what she would look like in various positions on my desk, etc. But I digress.



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No Bond Bubble--- Just Another Fed Machination

   Bloomberg has an article about record money flowing into bonds over the last 2 years. A total of $480 billion has rushed into bonds compared to $497 billion that went into dot com stocks between 1999-2000. So does this constitute a bubble? Many economic commentators and bloggers have suggested as much. They regurgitate the usual reasons why bonds will do poorly in the future and should be avoided: low yields, purchasing power to be eroded by inflation, the dangers of following the herd into an investment. I do not think we are in a bond bubble--yet. In fact, investors are simply responding to the Federal Reserve's interventions and market distortion. Since the Fed took rates down to zero, it does not make sense to hold funds in money market accounts, but investors are still fearful of equity markets.What are they to do? Invest in bonds.
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