STOP! Notice the face of the man in the middle. Deflating Bernanke photo essay.
Scoll down for the text of the story.
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Yo, Paulson!
Sweet commentary on FED transparency.
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Notice the crossed fingers. Nice.
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Deflating Bernanke photo collection.
Nano-crapmagic money printing for dummies.
Thoughts from Bullard, Lockhart, Fisher and the rest of B-52's henchmen. Solid Reuters fact box with QE positions and quotes from all 12 Fed Governors. Plus, why the super-bullshitastic efforts by the Helipcopter will fail.
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Fed's Bullard could back easing in $100 billion steps - Reuters
(Reuters) - St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday he would favor Fed purchases of Treasury securities in $100 billion increments one Fed meeting at a time (every 45 days), if the U.S. central bank decides monetary easing is necessary.
- "If we do decide to go ahead with quantitative easing ... we could think in units of about $100 billion," he said.
- "And then I think we could give forward guidance for the next meeting that would suggest how likely the committee thinks it is to continue these purchases," he added.
Analysts anticipate around $500 billion in fresh Treasury buying to be announced at the Fed's November 2-3 meeting, and some see a shopping spree of $1 trillion or more. Bullard, a voter on the Fed's policy-setting panel this year, said the decision on further easing is "a tough call." Bullard further said he does not think the Fed should set a ceiling on how much further easing it is willing to provide.
- "You just leave it open-ended," he said. "People would impute what they think the Fed's going to do based on their own forecasts... We would do the best we can to communicate how we think the program is evolving."
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Richard Fisher is not so sure:
Oct 19 (Reuters) - Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said on Tuesday that while the economy is barely growing fast enough to create new jobs, the case for further monetary easing has not been made conclusively.
Fed's Richard Fisher - not clear more easing is warranted
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But Lockhart is gung ho, ready to test the hellhounds of inflation:
On Tuesday, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said any additional Fed securities purchases would have to be large enough to have an impact and that increments of about $100 billion per month would be roughly on target.
Fed's Lockhart: Quantitative easing must be big
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Finally, this article sums up the positions of all Fed Governors:
(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on October 15 that a case could be made for a further easing in U.S. monetary policy. A consensus appears to be in place at the Fed in favor of a second round of purchases of U.S. government debt to stimulate the economy, with a number of officials firming their support or showing more openness toward easing in recent weeks.
Following is a rating of where policy makers stand on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 signifying "doves" most likely to support further easing and 5 representing "hawks" most likely to oppose it.
Hawks, Doves fight it out as Fed moves toward easing
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Now, why it won't work:
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DB here.
It's pretty simple. QE1 was $1.75 trillion and yet failed like the miserable, slobbering, hyperventilating, sleestack of Satan's 2nd spawn, spit out of Volcker's colon during a difficult moment on the DC belltway.
The same will happen with QE2, only worse.
The numbers Bullard and Lockhart discuss come to about $800 billion per year of Treasury purchases. There is no way in Bernanke's Tokyo nightmare scenario that $800 billion of printing will slow a $50 trillion deleveraging push. Rates are already astronomically low, and there is no refinancing boom. Too many homeowners are underwater and can't pass the appraisal-equity game in order to get one of those new lower rates. And the ones who could qualify, have already refinanced. Make no mistake, this is a Brian Sack gift to the equity markets and the banks, pensions funds, and others who already own treasuries. It will hurt the Dollar, and won't even make a dent in the deleveraging. Better to give up on extend, pretend, and just take it in the aft end, at least for awhile. It's gonna be a long slog. In the end, and we're nowhere near the end, quantitative easing is little more than dollar-destroying, nano-crapmagic money printing for dubious, devious, desperate, dumb-ass Fed Chairmen.
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