(From @keithmccullough and Keith's morning call.)
The top three items in my risk notebook this morning were as follows:
- Bernanke
- Bernanke
- Bernanke
After listening to this unelected, unaccountable central planner’s testimony earlier, all I can say is be very careful up here.
Here are some of my key thoughts and takeaways from the man Marxists fawn over:
- The Serial Debaucher of your hard earned currency marches on, deciding not to acknowledge economic gravity and taper bond buying.
- The best path for US #GrowthAccelerating is for the Fed to get out of the way. On a related note, the faster the Fed gets out of the way of #StrongDollar, the faster gas prices will finally fall and fuel U.S. consumer spending.
- Bernanke says, “I have a great inflation track record" (all-time highs in oil, gold, and food prices during my term). The man is a world class storyteller, but a horrendous market and economic forecaster.
- Why are consumer prices falling? Simple. Because Bernanke perpetuated the all-time highs in consumer prices back in 2011-2012.
- Modern science and math has taught us to embrace uncertainty - Bernanke's model promises politicians certainty. Meanwhile, the certainty Bernanke promises (his forecasts, timing, etc) is certainly wrong at least 2/3ds of the time.
- There was a day when I didn't like the policy and traded what I didn't like about it. Now I just accept it, and front-run it.
Bottom Line: Bernanke is officially the market's biggest liability. He has no idea how all of this will end. This whole thing will end in tears if he thinks he can call the turn. Be careful up here.
