By The Hair

"Where's the beef" was a noted television commercial of the past. Today, another fast food place has one, "We have the beef."

But the big question today for the economy and the stock market is: Where are the materials? It's one you can bet Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her minion at the Lords of Eccles is interested in.The short answer is not at Alcoa, the big aluminum manufacturer.

It's earnings season again if you have not been paying attention with all the self-righteous and sickening  MSM spewing about locker room language. And any hint of a strong or reasonably strong recovery  should include materials and mining, two sectors hit the hardest by the recession. Talk about talking down earnings all you want, a known Wall Street trick to make things appear better than they actually are, doesn't explain the opening salvo from this sector when Alcoa announced profits and revenues missed expectations.

Now there are always excuses or mitigating circumstances. When  Bill Clinton got his hat blocked while sitting in the White House chair, Bill claimed getting one's hat blocked as such isn't sex. In today's Financial Times a guy named McCrum tries to make excuses for the fiat money mess the globe is now in by attacking those who buy and sell gold. In his fake diatribe he conveniently left out that governments buy and sell gold, lots of it. The U.S.Treasury takes in a fair amount of coin by stamping gold and silver coins and foisting them off on the public. And they are not alone.

In McCrum's twisted logic that's probably just filling a niche'. That same government--like most others--sells a lot of bonds. The only thing now standing behind those pieces of paper is a promise and the ability to tax your asses off. We are not gold bugs. But the people who rant so much against  gold do so for a very good reason, gold, like the Donald, whatever his flaws and there are many, is a serious threat to their way of life. And history tells more than one story about promises to pay and tax revolts.

Now about those earnings. Alcoa claims it's temporary and it might just be. The company also claims part of it is owing to the upcoming split later this month when the group's specialized metals and such go one way and the commodities business with aluminum goes another. To be sure, this economy is full of mixed signals, but that's an argument that favors more of the same or even less than any meaningful recovery that could endure higher interest rates, a fait accompli this Fed demonstrates an inherent still for doing. See lower interest rates.

And that, dear investors, is why global central bankers are now caught by the hair on their chinny, chin chins.