It's Called Straddling

Let's get realistic here. If Fed Chair Janet Yellen had not played down Friday's job numbers it would have been further interpreted by many as more proof these bureaucrats don't know what they're doing. And they don't. All this chatter about experiential policies is central bank jargon to cover up their lack of a clue. It's a global lack of a clue.

For all the ballyhooing about transparency, obfuscation is a better term to describe the Fed's actions. This is a fence-straddling Fed that fears getting caught too far on one side or the other. It is really a pitiful group of non-elected bureaucrats that the captive American public is saddled with.

Just raise the damn rates and get it over with. Or shut up! The market and the people will adjust and survive. It would be difficult--if downright near impossible--to come up with enough deserved terms to denigrate this pathetic lot. They've been hassling with this and their data-dependent nonsense for so long, it's no longer a hassle. One gets the impression that they might just be a bunch of MSM economic prostitutes seeking attention.

Get over yourselves. You're not that important and do your damn jobs. Or stop supping at the public trough. Not too long ago she claimed she didn't focus on global concerns but the more important domestics ones were her policy. That all changed when earlier it looked like China was looking for a cliff to fall off.

As one wag was quoted after her speech by Marketwatch: Obviously she’s more hawkish than expected by saying we can’t put too much weight on one month’s data,” Aama said. “But I don’t think it was much of a surprise that she was going to have a hedged speech.”

While Yellen said Friday’s report was “concerning,” she also referred to rising employment, household incomes, and consumer confidence as reflecting a relatively healthy domestic economy.

However, she said external factors posing a risk are the U.K. exit from the European Union—known as Brexit—and the considerable challenges facing China as it rebalances its economy. She reiterated the central bank’s focus on economic data as it determines when to normalize monetary policy.

The rising employment number is a joke and anybody with any sense knows it didn't decline legitimately from 5%. to 4.7% without a little help from her friend over at the BLS and some sick math.The real debate is whether she's a bigger fence straddled than her predecessor. He was a guy who never met a fence too wide he didn't love to straddle.

So the silliness continues and the possibility of a stealth rate hike behind closed doors later this month is open, but much more likely this Fed will be waiting to see what Brexit does. Either way it goes, they will have an out. That's called straddling.