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Both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase have lowered Q2 Real GDP growth to 1%. Retail sales, although in Q3, were disappointing in today’s release. usretail071513 Tepid GDP growth and rising adjusted monetary base is not a great combination. moneyrelgdp As a consequence, M2 Money Velocity has plunged. m2velocbernake Of course, M2 Money Velocity is correlated with dwindling labor force participation. m2velpart The change in the M1 Money Multiplier is not so clear. m1multi And as I have discussed before, the rise in M1 Money Supply and the collapse of the Money Multiplier did not go unnoticed. m1multiexcess But both...

Both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase have lowered Q2 Real GDP growth to 1%. Retail sales, although in Q3, were disappointing in today’s release. usretail071513 Tepid GDP growth and rising adjusted monetary base is not a great combination. moneyrelgdp As a consequence, M2 Money Velocity has plunged. m2velocbernake Of course, M2 Money Velocity is correlated with dwindling labor force participation. m2velpart The change in the M1 Money Multiplier is not so clear. m1multi And as I have discussed before, the rise in M1 Money Supply and the collapse of the Money Multiplier did not go unnoticed. m1multiexcess But both...

Author Brad Thor warned about the NSA surveillance state in his last book “Black List,” and in a recent interview with TheBlaze’s Jon Seidl, described the subject of his newest book as an organization “more secretive than the NSA, CIA, and some people claim more powerful than the United States government itself.” On Glenn Beck’s radio program Tuesday, coinciding with the book’s release date, Thor revealed the agency behind “Hidden Order”: the Federal Reserve.… When he peels back the layers, Thor said, Harvath discovers that the Fed “is doing things nobody in America could ever imagine could be done…” “And...

Amazing. The Fed and Fed Chairman Bernanke announced that Fed asset purchase reductions would requires improved jobs numbers. Then BAM! Today’s jobless claims report. From the FOMC minutes: “Many members indicated that further improvement in the outlook for the labor market would be required before it would be appropriate to slow the pace of asset purchases” Bernanke: “I think you can only conclude that highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what’s needed in the U.S. economy.” Bernanke: “And I guess the final thing I would say in terms of risks of course is that we have seen...

Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the U.S. economy still needs help from the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policies. Bernanke told the National Bureau of Economic Research that because unemployment remains high and inflation is below the Fed’s target, the policies are still necessary. He also said the economy is being held back by higher taxes and federal spending cuts. … Stock index futures rose as Bernanke spoke. The Standard & Poor’s index futures were up eight points, or 0.5 percent, at 1,656 as of 5:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time—shortly after Bernanke wrapped up his remarks. Bernanke’s comments were...

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will have a Q&A following the release on the Fed’s FOMC minutes today at 2pm EST. Here are the minutes. Quick summary of the last FOMC meeting: half the voting members want to stop asset purchases later this year. The other half, wait for improving economic conditions. The reaction in the 10 year Treasury yield? t10reaction But prior to his Q&A session, the 10 year Treasury auction went off as expected. trreas10yraux The 10 Year High Yield continues to climb. ust10ihg The 30 year auction is tomorrow. Stay tuned!

A look at how the stock markets have performed over the last year in countries where Central Bankers have ruled the roost, versus countries where Central Bankers have not. If you ain't got Ben Bernanke or the Bank of Japan on your team, better of keeping your ball and bat and staying home.

On June 17, Barack Obama had one of his most awesome reality TV events of the year when he fired central bank chairman Ben Bernanke on PBS with liberal mope and host Charlie Rose moderating. “He essentially fired Ben Bernanke on the spot and gave him a fairly tepid testimonial afterward,” said former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer, in an interview on CNBC the next day. And the bankers have been in revolt ever since.  The government, meanwhile, has revised the economy’s performance downward. The newest do-over by government economists comes three months after they gave the economy one of the...

Whoops! Q1 real GDP was downgraded from 2.4% to 1.8% yesterday on lower-than-expected consumer expenditures. q1gdp062613 And now NY Fed’s William Dudley gave a dovish speech repeating Bernanke’s hints that The Fed COULD taper, but we will have to wait and see. The US personal savings rate rose (slightly), so a decline in consumer spending is not all that surprising. [Hopefully, consumers are saving for a down payment!]. psr062713 The reaction in the Dow after the downgrade (or revision)? The DJIA has increased mightily on the thought that The Fed hinted at an early pull-out of easing. djia062713 The global...

The Bernanke Fed Is Playing With Deflationary Fire By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard June 24th, 2013 I hope the Fed knows what it is doing. It has chosen to tighten monetary policy even though core PCE inflation is actually lower right now than it was when the Fed previously thought it dangerous enough to launch further QE. America is one shock away from a slide into outright deflation, and the eurozone is half a shock away. Anyone who still thinks the Fed has not just tightened significantly – or that markets have overreacted – should read this lament by St Louis Fed...

The Fed’s Forked Tongue, Means Gold's Price Rise Will be Explosive Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 June 26, 2013 - 04:18 PM GMT By: Darryl R Schoon When Helicopter Ben Bernanke Said the helicopter would descend The markets reacted and quickly fell Fearing the party would end But they forgot that Ben’s a banker A breed whose trust is low And they didn’t stop to consider It might only be part of the show On June 22nd, Robert Lenzer in his article, Stocks React Like Junkies As Bernanke Yanks Away Low Rates, pointed out in Forbes Magazine the flawed...

Ben Bernanke Has Burst The 'Euphoria' Bubble Walter Kurtz, Sober LookJune 26,2013Credit Suisse Risk Appetite Index Sober Look ï‚ž The last time we discussed the Credit Suisse Global Risk Appetite Index, it was headed for "euphoria" (see this post from May 21). Around May 22 something changed, and it was all downhill from there. It was Bernanke's first hawkish statement. May 22; Bernanke: - WeÂ’re trying to make an assessment of whether or not we have seen real and sustainable progress in the labor market outlook. If we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that is going to...

The Damage Bernanke Has Done To Every Major Asset Class Since May 22 Matthew BoeslerJune 25, 2013 When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to rebuff a suggestion during his May 22 congressional testimony that the central bank could begin tapering back bond purchases in September, the stock market finally began to stumble. A rapid rise in U.S. Treasury yields had caused volatility in global markets since the beginning of May, but it wasn't until Bernanke's testimony that equities started to show weakness. Since then, equity investors around the world have faced increased volatility thanks to concerns that slowing of...

The debacle ignited by the Federal Reserve this week invites this question: What would have happened had Chairman Bernanke refrained from saying anything? He held on Wednesday one of his press conferences, announcing that, as the Associated Press put it, the Fed would likely slow its $85 billion-a-month program later this year and end it next year if the economy continued to strengthen. The stock market collapsed, and the value of the dollar soared — to more than a 1,300th of an ounce of gold at last check — and alarm is spreading. Well, let it not be said that...

KRUGMAN: The Fed May Have Just Made A Historic Mistake, And Done More Damage Than It Realizes Joe WeisenthalJune 22,2013REUTERS/Jason ReedThe most important story in the world is the change of direction in US interest rates, which coincides with the change in tone out of the Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday indicated that so long as its economic projections come to pass, it plans to slowdown on Quantitative Easing later on this year, with an eye towards totally ceasing bond purchases sometime in 2014. The markets puked on the news, and interest rates shot up, a move that was exacerbated...

Tapering The Taper TalkPeter Schiff Friday, June 21, 2013 As usual the Federal Reserve media reaction machine has fallen for a poorly executed head fake. It has fallen for this move many times in the past, and for its efforts, it has tackled nothing but air. Yet right on cue, it took the bait once more. Somehow the takeaway from Wednesday's release of the June Fed statement and Chairman Ben Bernanke's press conference was that the central bank is likely to begin scaling back, or "tapering," its $85 billion per month quantitative easing program sometime later this year, and that...

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard worried that the Fed's decision earlier this week to announce a plan to reduce bond buying was poorly timed, the regional Fed bank said in a statement on Friday explaining his dissent. "President Bullard ... felt that the committee's decision to authorize the chairman to lay out a more elaborate plan for reducing the pace of asset purchases was inappropriately timed," the St. Louis Fed's statement said. Bullard was one of two dissents cast on Wednesday by members of the U.S. central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. The other dissent, by...

Gold, Silver, Stocks, Bonds Plunge On Fed Noise And China Debt Crisis Risk Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 Jun 20, 2013 - 04:14 PM GMT By: GoldCore Today’s AM fix was USD 1,303.25, EUR 986.34 and GBP 842.38 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,366.00, EUR 1,019.86 and GBP 874.91 per ounce. Gold fell $16.10 or 1.18% yesterday and closed at $1,351.00/oz. Silver sank to $21.25 and ended down 1.25%. Bonds, shares plus gold and silver fell sharply around the world this morning after the U.S. Federal Reserve again suggested an end to their easy money policies. Data...

According to the National Association of Realtors, total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 4.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.18 million in May from 4.97 million in April, and is 12.9 percent above the 4.59 million-unit pace in May 2012. The median selling price surged from a year ago by the most since October 2005. Rising home values and mortgage rates within a percentage point of the all-time high. But mortgage purchase applications are stuck at levels last seen in 1995, when the Clinton Administration launched the...

EL-ERIAN: The Fed Better Be Right About The Economy Mohamed El-Erian, ContributorJune 20, 2013REUTERS/Frank Polich Virtually every segment of the fixed income, equity and commodity markets sold off viciously this afternoon on the back of the Fed statement and Chairman Ben Bernanke’s subsequent remarks. In the process, liquidity evaporated in certain places causing even more disorderly price moves. The immediate trigger for this afternoon’s market debacle was heightened concern that the Fed intends to reduce its support of the economy, undermining the markets’ notion of the “central bank put.” And in reacting to signs that the Fed may gradually take...