Update for those who don't see more easing - bad news:
- BERNANKE SAYS FED PREPARED TO TAKE MORE BALANCE SHEET ACTIONS
- BERNANKE SAYS `THOSE TOOLS REMAIN ON THE TABLE'
One hour ago, the Fed launched on a big stop hunt, sending gold first much lower, then much higher, even as it released no incremental data, but merely confirmed that with every other central bank still "easing" (by which we mean devaluing their currencies of course, most recently seen in India and Brazil, and shortly, in Japan and of course Europe, once again) it can delay injecting cash until after the president is reelected. So with everyone at least superficially pretending there may be a question about ultimate Fed strategy, Ben will take the podium shortly to answer Steve Liesman's and several other fawning 'journalists' questions on what the Fed sees for the future, which in turn will be driven by the just released revised Fed forecasts (see below). Our question is why does the Fed not sell one or more ad spots on its livestream? Each can sell for at least a few millions - the money could then be used to pay down the debt.
And just out from the Fed, the latest revised projections which are totally wrong, and will be revised in another few months depending on what the Russell 2000 does.
- *FOMC: 2012 GROWTH OF 2.4%-2.9% VS 2.2%-2.7% IN JANUARY
- *FOMC: 2013 GROWTH OF 2.7%-3.1% VS 2.8%-3.2% IN JANUARY
- *FOMC: JOBLESS END OF 2012 AT 7.8%-8.0% VS 8.2%-8.5% IN JAN.
- *FOMC: JOBLESS END OF 2013 AT 7.3%-7.7% VS 7.4%-8.1% IN JAN.
- *FOMC: 2012 PCE INFLATION OF 1.9%-2.0% VS 1.4%-1.8% IN JANUARY
- *FOMC: 2013 PCE INFLATION OF 1.6%-2.0% VS 1.4%-2.0% IN JANUARY