Juggling Dynamite

The wheels of central planners are coming off all over.

As Russia is re-learning this morning, Central Banks tinker at the edges of sentiment. Sometimes they are successful in swaying it one way and another–at least for a while. But in the end, their ‘bold’ interventions fail miserably, lurching from one crisis to the next, evaporating buckets of taxpayer dollars in the process.  See: Russian rate hike fails to stop the Ruble’s crash.

Here is a direct video link to a BBC documentary on the Sterling crash of September 1992 when the British government lost ‘control’.

Contagion is spreading through the world’s closely coupled risk markets.

Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on the floor of the Senate on Dec. 12, 2014 about the provision that Citigroup added to the omnibus budget package.  Here is a direct video link.

As the talking heads are all doing their usual–confirming a downtrend that has already been progressing for many months–the next consensus view is that the downturn in oil prices will be short-lived.

This long term view of WTIC since 1985 offers an alternative perspective on the extreme price spikes orchestrated by financial intermediaries the past 10 years, and why below $40 a barrel (green bar area) may actually be the natural resting place for West Texas Crude (lower for Canadian Crude) in the post-financial bubbles era…

The energy debt market is not feeling optimistic, as bond prices are evaporating in the once reckless ‘hot’ sector. But not to worry, investment bank ‘strategists’ remain universally bullish, the most recent Barron’s survey could not find one person to say stocks would fall in 2015.   There’s some comfort for frazzled nerves…??