Spacey Central Bankers

Two central banks tried it before you with less than good results. But you no doubt believe you and your cohorts can do it better. You didn't learn anything from their mishaps apparently.

This is why Fed Chair Janet Yellen hasn't got a clue. This is why she has to go. It 's no longer just laughable. It's now nearly pitiful how misguided the Eccles Building crew is. They have managed to give even the Peter Principle a bad name. It's one thing to rise to your level of incompetence. It's another all together to take it into outer space. Spacey central bankers can kill more than an economy.
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.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-29/despite-japanese-failure-janet-yellen-suggests-buying-stocks-help-increase-spending

Having hinted overnight that The Fed could buy stocks "maybe in the future," Janet Yellen blurted out confirmation that buying assets other than long-term U.S. debt is on the table. Despite the total and utter failure of SNB and BOJ direct equity buying to create increased consumption, Yellen explained "it could be useful to be able to intervene directly in assets where the prices have a more direct link to spending decisions."

Speaking via videoconference in response to questions raised at forum of Kansas City Fed minority bankers, Fed Chair Janet Yellen says there could be benefits to Fed buying equities or corporate bonds, yet would also likely be costs that have to be considered.

The idea of expanding into areas like equities might be “good thing to think about,” yet is not “something we need now,” Yellen said, noting that (for now) The Fed is more restricted in which assets it can purchase than other central banks.

"If we found, I think as other countries did, that they could reach the limits in terms of purchasing safe assets like longer-term government bonds, it could be useful to be able to intervene directly in assets where the prices have a more direct link to spending decisions."

And as Reuters notes, the Fed could get benefits from buying assets other than long-term U.S. debt if in a future downturn it could not buy any more government bonds, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday.

So let's see how those "other countries" equity buying schemes have done.

Japanese Equity ETF purchases have utterfly failed to spark a rebound in Japanese Household Spending...

Let alone even maintain Japanese stocks!!

Overnight

Thursday was a down day for Wall Street with the Dow off nearly 200 points. Asian shares for the most part played follow the leader Friday in early trade with the Nikkei down 1.5% on poor data about consumers. Though the index is off 1.7% for the month, it's set to finish the quarter nearly 6% higher. Some Bank of Japan board members doubted whether the central bank's overhaul of its massive stimulus programme, announced last week would enhance flexibility of monetary policy, a summary of opinions at the central bank's September rate review showed on Friday.

The Nikkei was at 16447.78., minus 245.93 points, the Hang Seng faded too, 1.25%, lower by nearly 298 points and the ASX 200 retreated 0.86% while the Shamghai Composite index was up slightly, o.19%. Part of the Asian downturn stemmed from before the market opened, Japanese officials released the core consumer index. It fell 0.5 percent on-year, slightly more than the 0.4 percent forecast by a Reuters poll of economists.  The mess called Deutsche Bank didn't either as concerns about the bank's stability had earlier rattled U.S. Markets.

In the currency markets, the yen traded at 101.00 against the dollar, up from its previous level of 101.50 a day earlier. Exports again were bothered by the stronger yen, sinking lower with Toyota off 2.53%, Nissan down 2.36% and Sony dropping 1.48%. The Australian dollar also weakened to 0.76 level. Gold suffered weakness owing to fallout from the Deutsch Bank news spilling over into the currencies market and pushing up the dollar against the euro. Gold, however, moved up a bit in Friday trading at $1323.20 an ounce. Perhaps the surprise of the day was in the oil market with WTI
Up 2.00% at $48 a barrel. The WSJ reported that Saudi agreed to the cut, possible 500,000 barrels a day, after facing the economic percussions of steady low oil prices.

Our View

 
Washington BS has been around a long, long time. It used to be, however, they sprayed it a bit with fertilizer along the way. Now it's just blatant, in-your-face arrogance. FBI Director James Comey's case is one in point.

Pressure on him to keep his job and help Hillary get a new one was obviously enormous. This doesn't means he's owed any sympathy. Just the opposite. He's another example of a public figure who takes an oath, verbal, written or unspoken, to uphold without bias the law. He apparently failed miserably beyond any shadow of doubt. We've suggested that he should be charged with dereliction of duty and perhaps even brought to trial. Short of that, perhaps his pension obviously coming from taxpayer pockets--the very people he's likely failed--should be reduced or completely revoked if cause can be established.

One thing the people of this nation can no longer tolerate is slamming those big steel doors behind blue collar wrong doers while sending white collar miscreants off to the local spa. We're not just talking Wall Street here. Yes, zero tolerance is the birth child of the leftists, a term they revere. Now it's time to make that a two-way thoroughfare.

An Opinion WSJ piece, "The Legend of Saint Comey," is too kind by three-quaters. Mr. Comey--as noted in the piece, and why not he's in Washington--suffers from the politician's disease, flip-flopping. Many of Comey's responses were insulting to the rest of us, left, right or way out there, who are expected to tow the mark. If they were a door with hinges they could pass for an escape hatch on a submarine.

Mr. Comey appears to have granted immunity to everyone except those without a pulse. To all these shenanigans the best ire those astute Journal editorial snobs could muster was: "Far be it from us to call Mr. Comey a weasel, but his highly unusual methods in investigating Mrs. Clinton have tarnished the FBI and certainly knocked off the halo."

Wouldn't you love to have these editorial wusses on your side in a knife fight.

That's our view. We hope you know yours.

Rigged System

No doubt MSM wants to control information, all information. They predictably go on the attack with those who dare disagree with their agenda. We can spare you all the by now trite, inane epithets they roll out to neutralize and vilify.

The Father of the Patriot Act was Joe Biden. Now we all know Joe as a guy who never saw a boast he didn't want to claim. But one has to forgive Joe. He's got a bad case of Al Gore disease, poor fellow. So what's the connection? Americans made a trade off with the devil. Recall at the time the Patriot Act went through the Hollywood loudmouths all went off on Bush for infringing on personal privacy and liberty. This is one of the few things these self righteous asses ever got right. They blamed Bush, as they should've. But big Joe Biden by his own big mouth ran interference for that bill. And as we all know, Joe Biden is big. Just ask him.

Now we have the current lame duck wreaking his last in-your-face havoc before he rides off to his DC tony digs. No envy here. Just par for the DC course. See John Boehner, the Clinton Foundation and a host of other so-called public servants, including one who is currently running for a highbrow titular position, take away the on-going illegal expansion of executive powers since FDR. One of this person's last acts will be out sourcing your Internet.

A story afloat today is the Dem-laded FEC is preparing documents to band other news sources like Fox. We are no defender of Fox other than their right to exist absent centralized government intervention. The same way the leftist organizations like CNN, PBS, MSNBC and others do.

MSM wants you to believe the alternative news columns are written by half-ass freaks and bigots, mostly Caucasian. You can believe that if you want. But we recall seeing a male Caucasian Hillary campaign worker and close insider saying he hated white folks. This came right after some of those email DNC leaks appeared, pointing out this gentleman, we use that term advisedly, was a half-assed, freak bigot. So apparently the old rule holds: Takes ones to know one. And we hope he sees this. As we said before the gauntlet is down. Irrespective of who wins this election, Wall Street's favorite, Hillary, or the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal's most disturbing, Donald, it will solve little to nothing.

Both of these represent the status quo crowd. Without changing the fundamentals it's all just a meretricious face lift. And a cheap one, if there is such a thing, at that. In the meantime, guard your liberty because it slipping away faster than you can shout rigged system. And don't let MSM bully you. They will if they can.
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Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” But for President Obama, those two ideas aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.
In his final speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama took the opposite approach to Franklin’s suggestion when he essentially called for a submission to world government. In his mind, giving up small freedoms to achieve international security is well worth the sacrifice.
The president said the world must focus on the promises the U.N. was founded on, and that is to “replace the ravages of war with cooperation” but the only way to realize that is for “nations like my own [to] accept constraints.” In that submission, Obama furthers, America is trading a bit of its freedoms for enhanced security. He said in full:

"We have to put our money where our mouths are. And we can only realize the promise of this institution’s founding to replace the ravages of war with cooperation if powerful nations like my own accept constraints. Sometimes I’m criticized in my own country for professing a belief in international norms and multilateral institutions, but I am convinced that in the long run giving up some freedom of action, not giving up our ability to protect ourselves or pursue our core interests but binding ourselves to international rules, over the long-term, enhances our security."

For anyone counting, Obama has 121 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes, and 42 seconds left in office. There's plenty of time to deal more damage to the foundations of our exceptional country, and he will do all he can to see it through.

marketslant.com/articles/video-who-said-giving-some-freedomenhances-our-security-last-week

How Much More

It's now getting to the point where there isn't anything too unkind to say about those stumbling, bumbling bureaucrats, economists all, at the Federal Reserve who have screwed up not just the economy but millions of innocent, decent folks' lives.

Based on their damage and pathetic performance it might be time for the proletarians to insist on changing the laws of this nation so that government stiffs can be, like nearly ever worker in this country, professional of not, held legally liable for negligence or failure of doing their fiduciary duties. People understand financial pain. Just ask the hoards who have suffered at the hands of these mostly academic-based incompetents.

Here's one more silly idea from the dot-plot crowd at the Eccles Building. This little ditty will instill even more confidence in you to trust these folks. It's also  more fodder for putting this phony central quasi-government creation run by big Wall Street elitists out of its misery and the much more evident misery of the American public. How much more are the decent people of America will to take?
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The end game of central bank lunacy is surely near. Even the Fed heads appear to be mumbling bits and pieces of truth in public.
Former Philly Fed President Charles Plosser, for example, told Bloomberg TV this morning that central bankers “wring their hands all the time,” are very “concerned about credibility,” and are “pretty good at conjuring up reasons not to act.”
Having screwed up his mutinous courage, he then let loose with words that haven’t been heard from a central banker in decades, if ever:

The Fed “shouldn’t be afraid a recession might come,” he exclaimed, “there’s a real problem here”.

Then again, Plosser recently retired and perhaps it wasn’t all that voluntary. By contrast, Stanley Fischer is in line to takeover the joint, and perhaps soon.
That’s because Janet Yellen is surely finished whether the Donald wins or loses. Her dithering and double-talk have become a laughingstock even in the Wall Street casino.
So you might have thought the good professor from MIT—-by way of the IMF and Bank Of Israel—– would be carefully parsing his words. Instead, he was apparently moved during a speech to economics students to confess that he is more or less flummoxed by his own policies:
WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer on Tuesday expressed frustration with ultralow interest rates, saying they should rise over time.
“It bothers me, it really bothers me,” he said when asked about low rates at an event for economics students at Howard University in Washington…….I don’t like it, but I don’t want to raise the interest rate too much. I think we should at some point. I don’t know when,” he said. “The interest rate I believe is not at zero at a normal level and it should be [normal] at some point, not immediately.”
“I think there’s also a problem in going to a zero interest rate in the sense that it says that capital isn’t very productive, there’s not much going on in the economy,” Mr. Fischer said, adding that “we would be better off if there was a price for using money.”
More:
davidstockmanscontracorner.com/stanley-fischers-novel-idea-wed-be-better-off-with-a-price-for-using-money 
 

Financial Dyspepsia

We have never had many nice things to say about Goldman Sachs. And not without cause. Terms like smarmy, shady, disingenuous, greedy come to mind. Even if one overlooks their suspicious long term connections to the Federal Reserve, Goldman is one of the main Wall Street titans of financial and political BS. This is a credibility issue and hardly a new one.

Their connection to Hillary is so thick one would need a chain saw to cut it. Even more suspect is their credibility when it comes to research. Here's why and it's only one of many GS financial burps. This is a firm with a definite case of financial dyspepsia. Trust them at your own peril.

Goldman has done it again. Two days after the central banker-incubator cut its year end price target from $50 to $43, admitting the previously anticipated rebalancing will take longer to achieve, and now expects "a global surplus of 400 kb/d in 4Q16 vs. a 300 kb/d draw previously", and followed the next day by a report in which it said that not even an OPEC deal would stop oil going lower, overnight the very same analyst, just 24 hours after saying the opposite, Goldman's Damien Courvalin said that the OPEC agreement will "likely provide support to prices, at least in the short term" and added that the announced production quota should boost the price of oil by $7/bbl - $10/bbl. Again: this is two days after cutting the 2016 price target by $7, and one day after saying an OPEC deal would have no impact.

Still, trying to avoid looking like a total flip-flopper, Courvalin adds that "at the historical average 4.8% production beat relative to quotas, this target would be 33.7 mb/d, above current production levels. It has historically taken a fall in oil demand to ensure quota compliance, as in that case, production is forced lower by a decline in refinery intake around the world. This is not the case today with resilient demand growth" and said that "we maintain our year-end $43/bbl and 2017 $53/bbl WTI price forecasts given: (1) uncertainty on this proposal until it is ratified, (2) likely quota beats if ratified, (3) potential for production above our cautious forecasts in areas of disruptions (as was the case today in Libya and KRG), and (4) our conservative supply forecasts outside of OPEC for next year."

Then again, the only thing that will be stuck in algos' random access memory is that Goldman now expects oil to rebound by up to $10/bbl, which may explain why oil is now rolling over.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-29/goldman-says-opec-deal-may-add-10-price-oil-two-days-after-cutting-oil-price-target

Overnight

Earlier we mentioned the OPEC energy cut deal, financialspuds.blogspot.com/2016/09/energy-cut.

Well, the news of a possible November limit on production though it's not known yet which countries will be cutting what spilled over into Asian markets overnight.

The Nikkei was up 1.4%, the Kospi gained  0.7%, with Hong Kong up 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite Index rallying 0.6%. According to the WSJ, Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said late Wednesday they had proposed cutting their collective output to between 32.5 million barrels a day and 33 million barrels a day, down from August levels of 33.2 million barrels a day. The group, however, deferred the task of finalizing a plan to make those cuts until November. Overnight, oil prices surged 5.3%, their biggest gain in more than five months. In early Asian trade, the Nymex crude price was up 31 cents at $47.35 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, added 34 cents at $49.03 a barrel.
Reuters described the cut this way.

Asian crude oil buyers remained cautious, eyeing details of an OPEC deal after the oil-producers group agreed for the first time since 2008 to reduce output in an oversupplied market.

Global oil prices held onto gains on Thursday after soaring 6 percent in the previous session as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on Wednesday to reduce output to a range of 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day.


However, how much each country will produce is to be decided at the next formal OPEC meeting in November, when an invitation to join cuts could also be extended to non-OPEC countries such as Russia.

In the currency markets a weaker yen punched investor sentiment higher and the dollar rose 0.6 percent against the Japanese currency to 101.34 yen, pulling away from Tuesday's one-month low of 100.085. The euro added 0.8 percent to 113.79 yen. Other currencies also traded higher as the Indonesian rupiah was up marginally, while the Malaysian ringgit gained 0.6% against the dollar. The New Taiwan Dollar was also higher against the dollar, ahead of a central bank rate decision later Thursday. Citi said it expects the currency to strengthen further following a likely rate cut—U.S. firm expects the central bank to cut policy rates by another 0.125 percentage point,the Journal reported.

In other news,thopugh muc of it seemed absorbed by the OPEC U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Wednesday the central bank did not have a "fixed timetable" for removing the current interest rate posture.. Her testimony followed the Fed's decision last week to hold steady on the federal funds rate at 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent. Gold edged higher to 1325.06.

Not Bunker Hill

 
Years ago there was Archie Bunker. Now it's LA bunkers. And we're not talking Bunker Hill.

Though we doubt there is any less PC. We've been telling you for some time now something is up. And here it is, though we have brought it up before.

Oscar winners, sports stars and Bill Gates are building lavish bunkers — with amenities ranging from a swimming pool to a bowling alley — as global anxiety fuels sales and owners "could be the next Adam and Eve."

Given the increased frequency of terrorist bombings and mass shootings and an under-lying sense of havoc fed by divisive election politics, it's no surprise that home security is going over the top and hitting luxurious new heights. Or, rather, new lows, as the average depth of a new breed of safe haven that occupies thousands of square feet is 10 feet under or more. Those who can afford to pull out all the stops for so-called self-preservation are doing so — in a fashion that goes way beyond the submerged corrugated metal units adopted by reality show "preppers" — to prepare for anything from nuclear bombings to drastic climate-change events. Gary Lynch, GM at Rising S Bunkers, a Texas-based company that specializes in underground bunkers and services scores of Los Angeles residences, says that sales at the most upscale end of the market — mainly to actors, pro athletes and politicians (who require signed NDAs) — have increased 700 percent this year compared with 2015, and overall sales have risen 150 percent. "Any time there is a turbulent political landscape, we see a spike in our sales. Given this election is as turbulent as it is, we are gearing up for an even bigger spike," says marketing director Brad Roberson of sales of bunkers that start at $39,000 and can run $8.35 million or more (FYI, a 12-stall horse shelter is $98,500).

Adds Mike Peters, owner of Utah-based Ultimate Bunker, which builds high-end versions in California, Texas and Minnesota: "People are going for luxury [to] live underground because they see the future is going to be rough. Everyone I've talked to thinks we are doomed, no matter who is elected." Robert Vicino, founder of Del Mar, Calif.-based Vivos, which constructs upscale community bunkers in Indiana (he believes coastal flooding scenarios preclude bunkers being safely built west of the Rockies), says, "Bill Gates has huge shelters under every one of his homes, in Rancho Santa Fe and Washington. His head of security visited with us a couple years ago, and for these multibillionaires, a few million is nothing. It's really just the newest form of insurance."

Read More...

blacklistednews.com/Luxury_Bunkers_for_L.A.%E2%80%99s_Superrich/