wheel of fortun-ate economic circumstances
From my favorite hedge fund manager/pundit/personality , Barry Ritzholtz:
[1] “Quite frankly, while I detest the intereference in the political process, I must admit to admiring the ingenuity and audacity of Goldman Sachs. As far as I can tell, either it was a brilliant ploy to impact the energy markets two months before elections, or the index is run by a bunch of naive, ham-fisted idiots, blissfully unaware of what they wrought so close to mid-term elections. So my own answer about energy manipulation turns on the question whether Goldman Sachs is a sharp collection of rocket scientists/traders, or a bunch-o-morons.”
[2] “Of course, the Fed does control money supply, and while it is understandable their providing additional liquidity during the rate tightening phase (i.e, more money supply as rates go higher) the most recent firehose of cash hitting the past few months since the pause is a bit harder to rationalize . . .”
What the second comment doesn’t explicitly state is that not only is the spate of money supply increases somewhat strange, it is coincident with the fact that last year the Fed announced it would stop explicitly reporting the overall money supply figure, known as ‘M3.’
Yes you can re-assemble this figure yourself, more or less, but if this regime has proven anything it is that only one or two levels of indirection are enough to plant reasonable doubt.
This is driving me nuts.
Related Posts:
- John Robb’s “Dissipative Systems” (June, 2008)
- while you were out… (December, 2005)
- Election Update: Do-Over on First Ballot (February, 2006)
- WattzOn: Personal Energy Profile (December, 2008)
- “Tips for New Paupers” (October, 2008)
