Yes, and oil nearly touches $111. These actions by the FED, apart from predictibly being ineffective, tell us how near desperation the governors are. I watched today as Paulson, no doubt a genius in his area of speciality, said, in essence, 'the derivitives must be contolled, but the Presidents economic advisors could not figure out how that might be done. As he says the banks should volunteerily 'reign in these contracts', he cannot figure out how to do it.
That, in essence, leaves us to the grace and benevolence of desperate men in control of banking.
They have lost control, and these efforts to force banks to offer liquidity to buyers of money, in all of their forms, keep failing, and Bernanke keeps trying the same rememdy. The dollar is on its way to .52 USDX, and there seems nothing Bernanke is willing to do. It is said the markets have already factored in 75 basis points into the next cut on March 18. It will get very interesting on March 18 about 1:30 est.
The only rememdey now, it seems to me is what Paul Volker with support of President Reagan, in 1981 did.....raise interest rates immediately and substantially. It may be more than buisness and markets can handle, but now the decision to destroy old peoples savings, and young peoples retirement funds by monitizing the debt, but damn if I can see any other solution. It is axiomatic that Bernanke does not have the minerals to do it, so it is a moot recommendation.
I would preface this by sending a carrier group and some marines to take the Cayman Islands and seal it off. Catch some of the cockroaches where they fled to.