Market to Force Hand of Central Banks

For many, central banks act in mysterious ways. Yet these enigmatic institutions have emerged as THE leaders in economic policy formulation around the world. More accurately, central banks have been pushed into a role that they did not seek and that they are less than fully equipped to deliver on.  And their impact is significant. Just witness how the Bank of Japan’s U-turn is realigning the pecking order in markets, shaping new political narratives, and making “experts” revisit many of their priors.

CNBC asks So Why Are Spanish Bond Yields Falling? Well, that's a good question. Short answer: Well rates spiked dramatically, and we are seeing some retracement from the psychological balm of even more liquidity thrown from the global central planning cartel, otherwise known as the central banks.

On early Monday afternoon, I wrote the following:

  Germany has the second largest Gold reserves in the world behind the US. Since the early ‘80s, it has stored the majority of these reserves with the NY Fed (45% vs. 13% in London, 11% in Paris and the remaining 31% in Frankfurt).   With that in mind, everyone needs to be aware that last Monday Germany’s Bundesbank announced it will be moving a major portion of its reserves from the US and all of its reserves from France back to Frankfurt.  

After the first few months of President Barack Obama’s term in office, I wrote about the carnival rollercoaster the market was riding. Looking at the blue line below, that post may have foreshadowed his tenure! The average of four-year presidential cycles from 1953 through 2008 shows that the S&P 500 Index generally remains flat for almost the first two years, before heading higher in the second half.

By Mercenary Trader: By Mike McDermott Traders are reluctantly heading back from the Hamptons after a lazy holiday week of trading.If you took last week off, you missed a few sessions of light-volume trading. But you also missed a couple of important macro events.

Traders are reluctantly heading back from the Hamptons after a lazy holiday week of trading. If you took last week off, you missed a few sessions of light-volume trading. But you also missed a couple of important macro events.

GERMANY had a very good 2011. Its economy grew by 3% on the year, helping bring unemployment down from nearly 7% to just 5.5% (as of November). No other large, developed economy performed nearly as well.