Dudley also said the central bank holds a very small amount of European sovereign debt and that he sees a “high bar” to additional purchases.That line came from this story on Bloomberg and it leads off today because buying sovereign debt - other than US debt - is not in the Fed's charter.
Not that it will matter at all. Our brain-dead congress probably won't even notice, but it does raise some questions, like:
1. Aren't there enough buyers for all that Euro-debt?
2. How much did the Fed buy, and in what denominations?
3. With its balance sheet already over $3 trillion and stuffed full of MBS and Agency Debt, why are they buying ANY euro sovereign debt?
The most basic question, still, is, "how desperate are the world's central bankers?"
Probably pretty desperate.
Other than that, oh, and Case-Shiller showed that residential real estate values have fallen again, for the 9th straight month, bringing median US home prices back to 2003 levels (talk about a "lost decade," just a guess, but home prices have a lot more downside in them).
ON Wall Street, stocks meandered along the unchanged level most of the day (except for the NASDAQ, which had a small gain thanks mostly to Apple (AAPL)), but dropped like a rock in the last hour of trading.
Volume was dismal, but that's been the case for so long, everyone just thinks it's normal. (it's not)
Lastly, this blog's editor posted this comment over at Zero Hedge and it got some attention:
I'm 58, making me a baby boomer. I like Ron Paul, but I know he's never going to get elected, so nix that idea.
Most of my friends are BBs as well, and, as a group, they're idiots. They say things like, "we need at least $80,000 a year just to maintain our standard of living," while they have $800K in stocks and investments.
So, instead of retiring early and taking their money out of their 401ks, IRAs or whatever - many of them are past 58 1/2 - they keep on working, padding their "nest egg."
The folly of this is that by the time they retire, the world as we knew it will have ended. It already has. They'll lose in the next market downturn and keep working until they're 70 or longer to "make up the difference."
Me, I've been semi-retired in my own business since i was 43. After my business went bank-o - with plenty of help from asshat employees and dishonest corporate competitors - I decided the rat race just wasn't worth it.
I am now happy, though not content, make enough to get by and even save a little - PMs, cash, tools, necessities - and figure that I'll work my 4-5 hours a day at my own pace until I die.
Retirement, like a lot of other stuff thrown at us by the MSM, is a myth. People relying on pensions and especially SS are going to be sorely disappointed. I've already been disappointed, so it doesn't matter to me.
As for the younger crowd, they're nothing but wage-slaves. That covers about all of the demographics in America. We're royally screwed, but don't even know it and continue to keep thinking it will get better at some point.
This country has some severe deficits - in education, imagination, entrepreneurism and free-thinking. As far as I can tell, it's all been downhill since Duane Allman died, but, like I tell anyone who whines, be a warrior, and a happy one. You have to fight for everything these days. Might as well enjoy the fight.
My sister has three girls in high school and they all plan on going to college. They're all so screwed, but they don't listen to me much unless there's a crisis, so I don't talk to them much, though I do give them silver on their birthdays.
I have a feeling they'll be seeking out my counsel as time goes on.
Dow 13,197.73, -43.90 (0.33%)
NASDAQ 3,120.35, -2.22 (0.07%)
S&P 500 1,412.52, -3.99 (0.28%)
NYSE Composite 8,239.28, -49.51 (0.60%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,637,697,375
NYSE Volume 3,474,379,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2214-3380
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 359-24
WTI crude oil: 107.33, +0.30
Gold: 1,684.90, -0.70
Silver: 32.62, -0.13
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