How quickly things change.How often have you heard that? A lot of us fail to recognize that it's one of those portmanteau sayings with another meaning: How short memories are.
A year and a half ago things in Greece were so bad someone stole Plato's tree. We wrote a blog piece about it, Plato's Tree Is Missing (February, 2013). Unemployment was 27%, pensions had been cut or suspended, street demonstrations were happening almost daily. To put it mildly peoples' mood was anything but copacetic.
Well, here's a blurb from today's Wall Street Breakfast.
After ruling out a need for a 3rd bailout, Greece is now looking to issue its second sovereign bond since April. The new offering further marks Greece's return to the financial markets after a four-year shut out, although the country still faces about a $16B funding gap in 2015. The bond will likely be a three-year issuance with a possible interest rate of just under 3% to raise €2.5-3B.
If the Federal Reserve has transferred risk from it friends, the big banks, to the paper asset market, and they have, there's another transfer that took place via the Fed's so-called more transparency policies and it's continual reassurance talk.
Most call it complacency. Announcing the date you expect something to end, QE, and setting a possible date for interest rates to rise is designed to probe the water temperature and settle mood. It's like saying one has until such and such a time to prepare. But worry not because we got you covered.
And basing those announcements on questionable economic data that are constantly revised upwards and downwards is something only government bureaucrats could get away with.When one door get closed usually another gets opened.
The major question is here is: How good of an indicator is complacency? Some say we are about to find out.
Along those lines, as MSM waits for the release of the Fed's June minutes to pour over and scratch for signs, here's another view from an ex-White House economist. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-questions-with-alan-krueger-on-long-term-joblessness-2014-04-03?pagenumber=2
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