Sigh ....

Sometimes being right over and over again wears on one, especially when, if the ruling classes had listened in the past, much of these economic troubles could have been substantially mitigated. Here's another example.

FT: "Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US derivatives regulator, on Wednesday signalled the Obama administration's desire to extend oversight of hedge funds, saying they had “destabilised” the financial system by causing “runs on liquidity”. "

And: Mr Gensler also praised a US Senate report released yesterday that accused commodity index traders of causing a bubble in wheat futures prices last year. The report, issued by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, argued that big wheat purchases on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange pushed up futures prices, disrupting convergence between futures and cash prices and increasing costs for farmers and consumers. Carl Levin, the Senator who released the report, said the CFTC must “change course, rein in commodity index traders and clamp down on excessive speculation that is disrupting commodity prices”.

Hello Senators: They did it in oil, too, last summer. That run to $150/barrel hurt the consumer at the worst possible time last summer.

This whole Wall Street-Hedge Fund swamp is full of hogs wanting to sell crappy products, create bubbles, and in general simply rob the common man of fair prices and stability.

Of course, now they hire ex-Treasury officials and ex-SEC officials to lobby against new financial regulations.

The Fed Decision

The Fed, as expected, left interest rates unchanged after a two-day meeting and repeated that borrowing costs would stay exceptionally low for some time.

“The Fed is on the record as saying they are in no hurry to raise rates,” said Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays Capital. The US central bank also made no change to its quantitative easing policies as it said the pace of economic contraction appeared to be slowing.

ECB plays Catch-Up

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank pumped €442bn ($617bn) into the banking system, at a rate of 1 per cent in its first offer of one-year funds – more than analysts had expected. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, an executive of the ECB’s executive board, said that banks must now lend on the funds they had borrowed.

CA Nightmare

FT: "California’s controller said on Wednesday that he would have to issue IOUs in a week if lawmakers are unable to quickly solve a $24bn budget deficit, as the state’s treasurer plans to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs."

The multi-decadal folly of that state comes home. That's fine with me. That State is one of the most rapacious in existence. I do some business there and I know firsthand how unfair they are.

Markets

Doing nothing. I still have my list for adds on a dip.

Word of the Day

"Fatuity" - noun {$10]
Fatuity means 1. stupidity, folly; 2. a fatuous remark, act or sentiment.
Sentence: The colossal fatuity in the US Congress sometimes overwhelms me.

Słowo Tygodnia

"Niegodziwiec" - noun, masculine; the genitive is either niegodziwcze or niegodziwcu. Interestingly, given the meaning, the word sounds a bit like "nogoodnik", that humorous word from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.
Niegodziwiec means rogue, knave.
Zdanie: Bunkrowiec myśli, że większość polityków są niegodziwcy.
Sentence: Bunkerman thinks that most politicians are knaves.