L
Posted on 01/31/2010 5:01:34 PM PST by mikelike
{snip}
The following Senators voted YEA on Cloture and stand for election this November.
AK:Murkowski (R) AR:Lincoln (D) CA:Boxer (D) CT:Dodd (D) GA:Isakson (R) HI:Inouye (D) IN:Bayh (D) MD:Mikulski (D) NC:Burr (R) YEA ND:Dorgan (D) YEA NH:Gregg (R) YEA (Retiring - to a Goldman affiliate!) NV:Reid (D) YEA NY:Schumer (D) YEA (Wall Street's Chief Whore) OK:Coburn (R) YEA OR:Wyden (D) YEA UT:Bennett (R) YEA VT:Leahy (D) YEA WA:Murray (D) YEA
Ignore the actual confirmation vote. Some of the clowns in the Senate, like Babs Boxer, tried to obfuscate reality by voting for Cloture and then voting "Nay" on the final vote itself, in an attempt to play "I voted against it before I voted for it." This sort of symbolic malarkey must not be allowed to stand.
More importantly though is that Bernanke is now officially President Obama's child. He put him up for renomination, he did not pull that nomination, and he personally lobbied for his reconfirmation. He owns it.
{snip} SIGTARP discussion available everywhere {snip}
The last two weeks have treated us to a few ugly realities in regard to where the markets are and what Bernanke has done. By pumping a literal trillion dollars into the markets via his above-market-price purchase of mortgage and treasury securities along with a zero interest rate for short-term fed borrowing he has engendered a monstrous stock market bubble. This has come about due to the inherent disconnect between real valuations and yields in markets where he has interfered (when you overpay for something you drive its yield down.)
But that stock bubble has in turn been predicated on growth numbers that simply cannot arrive in the real world. The realization that "we've been had" may be coming now - but whether it is now, a month from now or six months from now, it will come, and instead of producing a flattening of the market (which would be the likely outcome were we trading in the 800s or even low 900s now on the S&P) the potential for an outright crash instead exists as people run for the door.
We should know better - after all, the same dynamic took hold in the housing market. But that sort of dynamic was ignored then ("subprime is contained") and is being ignored now ("I don't see any asset bubbles") by Bernanke, and will continue to be - right up until the market implodes.
Perhaps this is his (and President Obama's) intent. After all, our dear President intends to send a nearly $4 trillion Federal Budget to Congress in the coming days, while we are running a deficit of nearly half that. With China increasingly unwilling (or unable) to continue to recycle hundreds of billions annually back to US Debt (a losing strategy for them in the longer term as they'll never be paid off) and both Japan and England drowning under their own debt issuance one has to wonder exactly where Obama and Bernanke think they can source the over $1.5 trillion in net issuance they need to continue the charade.
Perhaps the answer is nothing more complex than intentionally cranking the stock market one more time, then crashing it again, scaring everyone into Treasuries. Recent changes in money-market fund rules to permit them to throw up gates without prior approval of the SEC may be part of this, as may the rumblings about "annuitizing" people's retirement accounts. Anyone care to take a bet on there being some sort of "conversion to something safe" option being thrown about if and when the stock market dives once more?
In any event the key items here are that we now have a "hit list" of Senators that must go from their seats come November, and a reminder that President Obama can no longer blame what I believe is an upcoming collapse of the stock market - a multi-year affair that will be much worse than what we suffered in 2008 and early 2009 - on President Bush. He had the opportunity to name either Volcker or John Taylor (to name two) to the position that Bernanke has, and decided instead to go with the guy who has been a chief architect of the "Brigand-and-Loot-Em" society - for better or worse, it's all his now.
Bonne chance mes amis.
Roll the presses! They want the free money to continue.
I’m heading to the Australian dollar, but have to wait a little because the market is crashing and for some strange reason the dollar goes up when stocks go down. Something to do with the carry trade. If someone has an explanation, I’d love to know.
Stock goes down if dollar gets stronger in relation to other currency.
Carry trade. Fed gives money to bank. Bank buys T-Bills from treasury. Treasury buys back T-Bill ten days later with 3% profit to bank.
L
Our retirement funds is the only liquid money left in this country and he wants grab it.
Tom Coburn voted yes?
/sarc
I do not think for a minute that Tom Coburn is a RHINO. I put a question mark after my comment to see if I could get some thinking on why he voted as he did.
So far no help with that.
Oops, meant to say RINO.
Oh, I think he’s decided to take the devil you know that the devil you don’t. Bernanke’s not been good, but I think he’d be better than just about anyone Obama would put up!
And the RINO comment wasn’t for you, I figured others would be in here to condemn him as a RINO. Seems there’s a fanatical contingent on FR that attack any politician that dares do anything they don’t agree with as a RINO.
Thanks, Soldier. I have the greatest respect for Tom Coburn. He has said some nice things about this horrible president because he is working to kill some programs. He never gives up.
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