Lex Luz

Is Bernanke Hinting Something About the Fed's Rate Plans?

I'm curious - and freely admit to very limited knowledge here - about how the Fed's statements today help to strengthen the dollar. On their face these statements and the implied policy (in)action would seem in my view to weaken the dollar further. In essence, the Fed seems to be continuing to say, "we'll take your crap MBS in trade for treasuries." If this is the case, and if the dollar is as a result backed by near-worthless securities, and if furthermore the Fed intends to throw as many buckets of money out of their helicopters as possible now and into the forseeable future, how is it that the dollar gains strength?

I am quite sure that there's something I'm missing here and would appreciate some education on this. No sarcasm implied despite my strong language. Thanks.

Is the U.S. Trustworthy? What the World Thinks

Yes, "America must get its act together." But how, exactly? The Republicans spew the hollow lines of fiscal conservatism while throwing money down every imaginable foreign rat-hole and creating bloated bureaucracies like the Department of Homeland Security that seem to serve no purpose other than to dole out funds to favored contractors. The Democrats, meanwhile, do... wait... what, exactly? Whine and moan in the corner, bullied by the right and battered by their seemingly incessant desire to be all things to every possible constituency without ever staking out a position of any substance. Meanwhile, the media have utterly abandoned real news-gathering in favor of the far more profitable, and frankly easier, chasing down of whichever celebrity forgot her panties today.

In the absence of leadership willing to take the risk and accept the certain pain of imposing genuine austerity measures here in the United States, it seems to me far more likely that we will have to wait for those measures to be imposed on us by the world markets.

People who think that the threat to our national security comes from some nameless terrorist in the mountains of Afghanistan have fallen for the greatest sham ever conconcted. The real threat is us and our insatiable avarice and profligacy.

John Hussman: Fiscal Policy Is the Key

When the Executive directs a cowed Congress to pay for a multi-trillion-dollar war, the Executive must share some of the responsibility for ill-considered fiscal policy. No question Congress could, in theory, draw a line in the sand, but to be fair responsibility for our disastrous fiscal policy of the past thirty-plus years must be spread much farther. It's your last sentence that to me has the greatest ring of truth: we are seeing the enemy, and it is us.