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Says Congress "should consider minding own business and fixing infrastructure".
ZeroHuff reports that sources inside the Fed, unidentified because they are "not allowed to speak for attribution", said earlier today that numerous Fed members have remarked that the current Congress is a collection of "ignorant do-nothing bumsquats". Asked for a more detailed definition of "bumsquats", a Fed spokesperson said that they "had no further comment at this time", but added that "we're pretty sure that we know that they know who we mean".
Phone calls and emails from ZeroHuff requesting additional comment have gone unanswered.
Having Congress set interest rates? I can't see any downside to that at all...you?
Even Joe Kernan was aware enough to be flummoxed with that idea.
Having a bunch of political foes who derive their power by taxing and distributing money handed the keys to setting rates and driving monetary policy.... What could possibly go wrong
No worries. Congress hasn't been able to agree on anything since forever therefore interest rates will stay where they are and everyone will stop worrying and writing about when they are supposed to change.
It's always easier to throw stones than to defend a position. I won't take sides in the Fed dispute. Frankly I don't care at this point. But our political process seems increasingly based on three precepts: attack, attack, attack.
I am old enough to remember, though not so long ago, when those within Congress agreed on lots of things of all kinds. But Bob Dole was a Republican then. (One discouraged dude with this GOP clown train.)
During the congressional testimony, Yellen was batting away calls for a rules based mechanism on interest rates, indicating that making such a call on only two variables such as what the congress-critters were asking about was "not advisable".
I don't recall if it was Toomey she was beating back with a stick, but she certainly had more patience than I would have.
The other thing that stood out in the meeting was that when Yellen was at the Cleveland City Club the prior week, the crowd there asked better questions.
"So let's start with September 2008 as we all sat there and watched the economy melting down..."
"It was like my worst nightmare coming true. I had had enormous concerns about the over-the-counter derivatives [OTC] market, including credit default swaps, for a number of years. The market was totally opaque; we now call it the dark market. So nobody really knew what was going on in the market."
"I think it happened because there was no oversight of a very, very big, dynamic, growing market. Market participants don't look out for the public interest. Traditionally, government has had to protect the public interest by overseeing the marketplace and keeping the extreme behavior under some check.
We had no regulation. No federal or state public official had any idea what was going on in those markets, so enormous leverage was permitted, enormous borrowing. There was also little or no capital being put up as collateral for the transactions. All the players in the marketplace were participants and counterparties to one another's contracts. This market had gotten to be over $680 trillion in notional value as of June 2008 when it topped up. I think that was the peak. And that is an enormous market. That's more than 10 times the gross national product of all the countries in the world."
(Emphasis added on above)
"...perhaps on a more specific level, I knew that the entities participating in the market were ones that all the people actually had interest in. They were the companies that people had invested in; they were the employers of many people; they were the pension funds for many retirees; they were the insurance companies for many people who were depending on those companies for their insurance. So I knew that all the people had an investment in stability in that market."
And that last, folks, is what so many fail to understand when they talk about the "government bail-out of Wall Street". It was necessary to save Wall Street to save ourselves.
Says Congress "should consider minding own business and fixing infrastructure".
ZeroHuff reports that sources inside the Fed, unidentified because they are "not allowed to speak for attribution", said earlier today that numerous Fed members have remarked that the current Congress is a collection of "ignorant do-nothing bumsquats". Asked for a more detailed definition of "bumsquats", a Fed spokesperson said that they "had no further comment at this time", but added that "we're pretty sure that we know that they know who we mean".
Phone calls and emails from ZeroHuff requesting additional comment have gone unanswered.
I vividly remember Brooksley Born who got ran over by Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, and Robert Ruben during Clinton administration on regulating multitrillion-dollar derivatives market. No wonder there was ill feeling when Larry Summers was seeking the position as the secretary of treasury in Obama adminstration.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
Even Joe Kernan was aware enough to be flummoxed with that idea.
Says Congress "should consider minding own business and fixing infrastructure".
ZeroHuff reports that sources inside the Fed, unidentified because they are "not allowed to speak for attribution", said earlier today that numerous Fed members have remarked that the current Congress is a collection of "ignorant do-nothing bumsquats". Asked for a more detailed definition of "bumsquats", a Fed spokesperson said that they "had no further comment at this time", but added that "we're pretty sure that we know that they know who we mean".
Phone calls and emails from ZeroHuff requesting additional comment have gone unanswered.
Regards,
Ted
It's always easier to throw stones than to defend a position. I won't take sides in the Fed dispute. Frankly I don't care at this point. But our political process seems increasingly based on three precepts: attack, attack, attack.
I am old enough to remember, though not so long ago, when those within Congress agreed on lots of things of all kinds. But Bob Dole was a Republican then. (One discouraged dude with this GOP clown train.)
2016 will be way cool, for sure.
I don't recall if it was Toomey she was beating back with a stick, but she certainly had more patience than I would have.
The other thing that stood out in the meeting was that when Yellen was at the Cleveland City Club the prior week, the crowd there asked better questions.
@Ted - 2016 at the earliest and I believe it's already priced in but there will be a to-do about it anyway.
Hang tough Janet!
Hey, how many on the board have heard of Brooksley Born?
c
"So let's start with September 2008 as we all sat there and watched the economy melting down..."
"It was like my worst nightmare coming true. I had had enormous concerns about the over-the-counter derivatives [OTC] market, including credit default swaps, for a number of years. The market was totally opaque; we now call it the dark market. So nobody really knew what was going on in the market."
"I think it happened because there was no oversight of a very, very big, dynamic, growing market. Market participants don't look out for the public interest. Traditionally, government has had to protect the public interest by overseeing the marketplace and keeping the extreme behavior under some check.
We had no regulation. No federal or state public official had any idea what was going on in those markets, so enormous leverage was permitted, enormous borrowing. There was also little or no capital being put up as collateral for the transactions. All the players in the marketplace were participants and counterparties to one another's contracts. This market had gotten to be over $680 trillion in notional value as of June 2008 when it topped up. I think that was the peak. And that is an enormous market. That's more than 10 times the gross national product of all the countries in the world."
(Emphasis added on above)
"...perhaps on a more specific level, I knew that the entities participating in the market were ones that all the people actually had interest in. They were the companies that people had invested in; they were the employers of many people; they were the pension funds for many retirees; they were the insurance companies for many people who were depending on those companies for their insurance. So I knew that all the people had an investment in stability in that market."
And that last, folks, is what so many fail to understand when they talk about the "government bail-out of Wall Street". It was necessary to save Wall Street to save ourselves.
New headline: 'Congress Has Lost Credibility: Everyone'
@Sven.
You know!
Love you guys.
c