Thankfully The Fed Farce Is Now Over...

I don't have anything to say about it other than that the circus leading up to the decision announcement is retarded.  I also have to say that Steve Liesman has to be the biggest buffoon in financial reporting.  His performance makes Jerry Springer and Cornel West look brilliant...

At any rate we all knew what the Fed, for the most part, was going to do today.  The question is, when will the real printing re-commence?  My partner opined:  "they don't have much choice."  To which I said:  "yep, either print or don't print - if they don't print the system collapses."   So that's where things shake out.

Meanwhile. beneath the overflowing pomp and circumstance of today's U.S. version of Kabuki Theatre, please take note that Greece has finally implemented a series of austerity measures:  LINK  I don't know if those do a lot in the grand scheme of things over there, but it sure is step in the right direction that our Government refuses to take.  I would advise to cover all shorts in the euro...

As I've outlined in several previous posts, it boggles my mind that everyone in this country is focused on what is happening in Europe and predicting the end of the EU, euro etc, when really the problems in just California alone are bigger than Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain in aggregate.  Then throw in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania....And then there's the Federal Government.  Because the EU is set up the way it's set up, they can't just print money at a whim or issue EU "umbrella" debt and thereby keep in business an individual country this is going bankrupt, the way our Government enables States like California to avoid default.  They can systematically force austerity.  We don't have that ability in this country.  Eventually the global markets, of course, will force the issue on the U.S. and it will be be really ugly.

I hope everyone takes the time to the research piece I've linked below, which is a summary of a report published almost monthly by an organization called LEAP 2020.  I've been reading their freebie stuff for several years and most of their analysis has been remarkably accurate over time, although sometimes early on predictive timeframe.  They explain how/why Europe is being used by DC/Wall Street/London as device to keep everyone's focus off of the real problems in the global financial system: 

But let’s come back to Greece and what is beginning to be a "very repetitive old story (3)" which, as we have already explained, returns to the front of the media stage every time Washington and London are in serious difficulties (4). Moreover, coincidentally, the summer has been disastrous for the United States which is now in recession (5), which has seen their credit rating cut (an event deemed unthinkable by all the "experts" only six months ago) and exposed their political system’s state of widespread paralysis (6) to an astonished world, all whilst being incapable of putting any serious measure in place to reduce their deficits (7). At the same time, the United Kingdom is sinking into depression (8) with riots of uncommon violence, an austerity policy that fails to control budget deficits (9) whilst plunging the country into an unprecedented social crisis (10), and a ruling coalition that doesn’t even know why it governs together against the backdrop of the scandal of collusion between political leaders and the Murdoch empire. No doubt, in such a context, everything was ripe for a media relaunch of the Greek crisis and its corollary, the end of the Euro.

Here's the LINK  Please take the time to relax and read that piece.  It conveys a lot of the same views and truths that I try to convey with this blog, but does a much better job of it.

One thing they point out, that I forgot about and does not receive much media attention, is the financial nuclear trigger built into the debt-limit extension agreement.  In November this year, a "special" Congressional debt committee has to come up with a bunch of budget cuts, otherwise automatic budget cuts kick in.  This could be disastrous for the financial markets if the same movie from August is replayed at the end of October.  Of course, the Fed can always crank up the printing press and all will be forgiven...