Wednesday puts us on the other half of the Fed meeting, where at high noon Ben Bernanke and friends will announce their policy statement, then two hours later the Chairman will have a press conference and take questions from the media. I don’t expect much change but perhaps some acknowledgement of a sluggish economy and employment. The stated dual mandate seems to be on the rocks – but I suspect our Chairman will try and pull a rabbit out of his hat.
It got me thinking though, how protective Chairman Bernanke has become. He holds a doctorate in Economics from MIT. What is astonishing about his behavior are the many times he has come to the rescue of markets and the economy. As the Under Armor commercial says, ‘we must protect this house’ – he certainly has tried his best. I bet if Dr Bernanke had his own list of Commandments that must be followed religiously each day it would go something like this:
- Thou shall protect financial institutions at all times.
- Thou shall not do harm to markets.
- Thou shall foster an environment for growth and employment.
- Thou shall not listen to Congress, but nod to them in agreement.
- Thou shall make sure there is plenty of ink in the printer at all times.
- Thou shall always be buyer of anything as last resort.
- Thou shall not believe inflation is here even if food and energy prices rise.
- Thou shall keep interest rates low for as long as necessary.
- Thou shall always have a helicopter full with bags of money ready to fly.
- Thou shall blast a scud missile in the direction of market bears whenever possible.
We’ll see what’s in store for the markets after QE2 is over and what we may have to look forward to. I think we may be looking at #2 over the next several days. What do you think?
