Malkiel

Bernanke Hints at Another Rate Cut

So so far, if he hints at it, it will come. This market will have to price in an expected rate cut now, and the FED will make one because they've hinted they will. Will they ever give us a head fake just to keep us on our toes, or can we expect the rest of Bernanke's term to be predictable (and therefore tradeable)?

Cutting Rates Further Will Only Lead to Disaster

"it will not change the fundamentals that have been created by a 7-year streak of reckless deficit policies accompanied by a crumbling US infrastructure and major political and economic shifts around the globe...
The whole mess was created by too much credit"

It sounds to me like the whole mess was created by the factors you first mentioned: "...a 7-year streak of reckless deficit policies accompanied by a crumbling US infrastructure and major political and economic shifts around the globe." So maybe we should expect to change the political landscape if we want to head off inflation? Maybe whatever the Fed does can only be a drop in the bucket if we don't deal with the other issues, but the targeted effect on the mortgage refinancing crisis may be worth the risk. And being a drama queen and screaming about "Extending it further will be monetary suicide resulting in sky high inflation" doesn't cut it for those of us who lived through REAL inflation in the '70's. We'll have plenty of chances to head off serious inflation, but we may not have a choice about low-level inflation when we choose to accept a weak dollar...

President Bush Envisions a Soft Landing — What Does He Know?

I say this not as a blatant partisan, but simply because 8 years of observing Bush have proven it to be a valid observation: fact and truth are never factors in Bushes' public pronouncements, he will say whatever his political team thinks will play for a given audience on a given day, and then move on without and further reflection. Bush doesn't know or care how the economy is really behaving, his advisors just wanted to deliver the message the audience wanted to hear. No trader worth their salt would make any trade based on the scripted pronouncements from our emptiest leader ever...