Today will be best described as being a love fest of industrial policy economic central planners in Washington, DC as the White House hosts a ‘Jobs Summit’ (sorry for my lack of faith in Keynesian economics) and the Senate grills Bernanke in his confirmation hearing. Nothing will come out of the former and only some good TV drama may come from the latter. With regards to the Fed, Maria Bartiromo’s excellent interview with Fed Pres Bullard yesterday reveals still a Fed that doesn’t acknowledge their own transgressions in creating booms and busts thru easy money policy that leads to excessive credit growth. A 3rd day in a row of yen declines led to the biggest one day up move in Japan since May of 3.8%. The ECB left rates unchanged as expected but we await the 8:30 press conference to see if there are any changes to their lending policy. Retail comps looked weak so far.
