Small Talk

The minutes from the last Fed meeting were released yesterday, and as usual, the mindless chatter was soon to follow. A great deal was made about the discussion of the continued taper and more importantly how, or if, they would shrink their $4Trillion balance sheet. Without going into details, except to tell us that rates would not normalize any time soon, the committee felt they had a sufficient number of unproven methods to either reinvest their runoff proceeds or not. Depending on growth, or employment, or inflation the Fed feels confident that rates will remain low, or not, and that they will make adequate adjustments to policy, or not, depending on whether conditions warrant. Fed speak has been reduced to the most abject level of nonsense, which everyone feels somehow compelled to comment and act on. What was classic in yesterday’s minutes was the discussion of risks whereby some Fed members felt there were potential risks out there involving financial markets, namely tight credit spreads and low levels of overall volatility possibly hinting at extreme levels of complacency. The general feeling was however that it would be” helpful to continue to explore the appropriate regulatory, supervisory and monetary policy responses to potential risks to financial stability”. In other words, stay at the party everyone, we will clean up the mess afterwards- trust us.Trust in Central Bankers at your own risk. Buy Stuff.