I am FED up, are you?

Here is an excerpt from this morning's Quick Takes Pro (yes, I am peddling it. Have you taken a free trial yet?):

It all boils down to "will he or won’t he?" Will there be QE3 or not? No wonder investors are out of the market as there is no way to probe the mind of a mad man.

Whoa! Did we just say that? Well, let's refer back to Einstein's definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The Fed still thinks they have bullets left to "fix" the economy. It doesn't. In fact, it never did. The fix is not to fix it.  But that is a much longer discussion.

This morning, I heard a strategist I do respect talking about what the Fed can and cannot do. First, she said there is diminishing returns with any stimulus. I agree.

But when asked what the Fed can actually do she said they would not focus on Treasuries but instead look at mortgages. This would help a recovering industry by lowering mortgage rates.

click me for audio

 
Uh, excuse me. Aren't mortgage rates at all-time lows already?

I am truly fed up with all of this bravado. The Fed cannot fix the economy. If you want to the runner to run faster, stop giving him more weights (regulations and laws) to carry.

Meddling with the free market is In-saaaane!

Tease Me Baby

Fire and Ice
You come on like a flame
Then you turn a cold shoulder
Fire and Ice
I wanna give you my love
But you'll just take a little piece of my heart
---Pat Benatar, Fire and Ice (1984)

I remarked in Quick Takes Pro over the past week that the news was a predictable as the sun rising in the east every morning. Thursday, it was good new from China, the ECB and BOE. Friday it was bad news from the US with a lousy jobs report. Monday it was a German taxpayer revolt (sort of) killing the stock market. Tuesday, true to form, whopee! They are bailing out the Spanish banks.

Didn't they do that already? The market thought so and teased the bulls with an early 80-point Dow rally that evaporated. Then sat there - teasing, teasing. Until the bottom dropped out.

Fire and ice.

I have a feeling that we are going to see nothing until the election but chop, chop, chop unless one of three things happens:

1 - it becomes apparent that one side or the other will will the Presidency (stocks tank or soar)
2 - Europe implodes for real (beats me what happens)
3 - Central banks wake up and get the heck out of the way (stocks tank)

And you can take that to the bank. Invest it in LIBOR. I mean beer.