September 29, 2007
Saturday’s Commentary & Chat, 09/29/2007 6:50 AM ET
What’s wrong with this picture? And, why doesn’t the man have the decency to shut his mouth and let his successor get on with trying to fix the mess his office inherited? Is he another one of these Fed Heads with foot-in-mouth disease?
”Former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan has placed some pressure on stocks after commenting today that the odds of a US recession have risen and that housing market troubles have spilled over as a reduction in consumer spending. Greenspan also remarked that hedge funds are "presumably the largest culprit" responsible for the credit crunch.” (Knobias, Friday Sept 28, 2007)
The economy is like a cruise ship at sea. It takes forever to turn around. Moving an economy from growth to recession, ie, from good health to a sickly state, follows conditions set by central banks, finance ministers, and the Sell-side from two to five years prior. Ergo, if Greenspan is pointing us to a US economy moving into recession, he is pointing to his own nose.
Moreover, his remark that hedge funds are “the largest culprit” is almost too funny to come out of the mouth of a central banker and economist. This is like ‘Rodney Dangerfield stlll can't get no respect’ kind of funny. Reminds me of the 2000-2002 market crash that was blamed on – get this – ‘day traders’.
I’d laugh but I have to cry that people so incompetent can be put into positions of such immense responsibility. The ‘Peter Principle’ ought to be renamed the ‘Greenspan Principle’. Others at the Fed are taking his lead.
Following the Greenspan Principle, it’s only a matter of time for Prof. Bernanke to show the world what power can do to a brilliant mind. Turn it to sawdust.
Judging on his remarks and the timing of those remarks (at 2pm Friday in New York, just two hours before the end of the quarter-year), next on the list of Fed idiots to be promoted up the power hierarchy is the St. Louis Fed President Bill Poole. Only a scholarly but absent-minded professor like Poole would fail to understand that making a market-moving remark an hour or two prior to the close of the quarter is the wrong thing to do.
This is the same person who, a month ago, was roundly criticized by CNBC personalities Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer for making incredibly stupid comments. On behalf of the public, they demanded his resignation.
With leadership by people like Greenspan and Poole, it’s not too difficult to discover why America is in the economic difficulties its in at this point.
Here from the St. Louis Fed’s home page today is the Fed’s highlighted presentation of Poole’s remarks on Friday afternoon. I think that Jon Stewart must have played a key role in the speech writing.
"In a Sept. 28 speech in New York, St. Louis Fed President Bill Poole talked about the differences in thinking between Fed and private sector forecasters. Unlike traders and portfolio managers who make decisions based on up-to-the-minute data, Fed policymakers take a longer view.
He explained the care policymakers must take to avoid creating economic disturbances with the comments they make. "One way to avoid misinformation is to avoid providing any information. Put another way, if my mouth is not open, I cannot put my foot into it, "Poole said. "In my view, however, it is important to try to convey correct information. I do not believe that I would be doing my job if fear of providing misinformation led me to provide no information."
I mean, really. Is this content deserving of front page highlighting by the Fed? Maybe Bill Poole is auditioning for The Daily Show? Who knows?
I do know that Bill Poole can be called an idiot for his Friday afternoon timing in saying, "It would be a mistake to bake in the cake more rate cuts." Jay Leno should have such timing.
Can you tell from this chart the precise moment that Prof. Poole made that comment to a question from the audience?
Yes, 1400 hours is 2:00pm ET.
On another matter, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan index by the same name, consumer sentiment remained unchanged at the end of September. “The 83.4 reading matched the August report but still remains lower than the 90.4 index in July, signalling consumers believe the economic situation has not improved despite fed liquidity injections and rate cuts.” (Knobias)
Here’s the (Bill Cara) Buy-side Index (LOL; it’s the S&P500):
July (1455.27)
Aug (1473.99)
Sept (1526.75)
Traders say thank you, Prof. Bernanke. Consumers, though, are less than impressed, say Reuters/University of Michigan.
And speaking of impression, the ill-timed Bill Poole remark cost traders -0.6 pct of the value of their US portfolio assets in a single hour. Two hours from the end of the quarter-yearly accounting period, Bill Poole, was not the time to opine, “It would be a mistake to bake in the cake more rate cuts". He should have heeded his own words, placed today up in a billboard on the home page of the St. Louis Fed, “If my mouth is not open, I cannot put my foot into it.”
In one hour, portfolios around the world dropped -$100 billion (actually, a little over $97 billion). Thank you, Prof. Poole. What was that you were saying fifteen minutes earlier about your feet and your mouth?
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