“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Who is this guy? Seriously. Bernanke is un-elected and un-accountable – but, evidently, has the power to change the entire risk parameters of the economy with an un-qualified market timing opinion that spits in the face of economic data.

I get the whole fear-mongering love for Ben thing. Politicians and bankers who put the country on the brink saved us from themselves in 2008 – or so they claim. Nailed it. Even if you believe that, it was so 2008-2009. We’re half-way through 2013 for God’s sake.

The last time I saw Dick Fuld, he was living large at my golf club; Timmy Geithner just got paid $200,000 to speak at an #OldWall conference ; and bankers who are long FICC (Bill Gross too) are begging Bernanke for more. Is this the society Franklin and Jefferson had in mind?

Back to the Global Macro Grind

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. If it’s not self-evident to you that markets are going right squirrel on this, your internet connection must be down. Pardon the pun, but in a nutshell:

  1. American Purchasing Power (US Dollar) is getting pounded on this
  2. Gold, Silver, Oil, etc. (Bernanke Bubbles) are all ripping
  3. Treasury Yields are having their 4th down-day in a row, after rising on employment #GrowthAccelerating

So here’s the deal - Ben Bernanke is not only going to A) time the economic cycle (even though his growth forecasts have been wrong 58-73% of the time, depending on what year you use), he’s also going to B) time the market cycle.

#Great

Actually, to be balanced, what he’d say he’s attempting to do (which is unprecedented by the way during a recovery) isn’t timing, per se. I think these Keynesian types who have never risk managed a market or run a business in their life call it “smoothing.”

I call that reckless.

Mucker’s Policy Advice: longer-term, Mr. Market is already pricing in #StrongDollar and #RatesRising, so just let it go pal. Let free-market prices and economic cycles clear; or your legacy will be that of someone who kept trying to re-flate bubbles as they were blowing up.

If Bernanke doesn’t take Mr. Market’s advice on this, here’s what is most likely going to happen:

  1. US Dollar Debauchery = Commodity Reflation
  2. Commodity Reflation = Consumption #GrowthSlowing

In other words, with Oil prices ripping a move above our long-term TAIL risk line of $108.11/barrel this morning, Bernanke is going to effectively give everyday Americans an enema again. Not cool.

This is not new territory for this conflicted cat. Remember what he did with his “communication tooling” in September of 2012? He said he would print to infinity and beyond and commodities (Gold) had their last hurrah on that.

Then, within 2-3 months, markets were in bedlam, US Consumption growth tanked, and the USA printed a Q412 GDP number of 0.38%!

#Awesome

It’s especially awesome for the guy who gets paid to run Gold Bond funds. Why don’t we take rips on this volatility roller coaster over and over and over again? Bernanke is on the switch – we’ll have 3 coasters on the same track at the same time; he’s wicked good on timing!

What’s my economic strategy this morning?

  1. Prayer

Seriously. What on God’s good earth am I supposed to recommend you do on this? Lever yourself up with asset classes that are crashing? Fortuitously, we aren’t short anything related to Bernanke’s banker boy bonuses (FICC – Fixed Income, Currencies, Commodities). And we’re not short anything PIMCO yet either, so maybe I’ll just sell everything and take the rest of the summer off.

I’m getting really tired of all this un-American central planning anyway. We’ve had a great year, and there’s no way I’m letting whoever this guy thinks he is make me give it all back.

Our immediate-term Risk Ranges are now as follows:

UST 10yr 2.41-2.77

SPX 1

VIX 13.51-15.66

USD 82.64-83.95

Oil 105.56-110.28

Gold 1

Best of luck out there today,

KM

Keith R. McCullough
Chief Executive Officer

Bernanke's Society - Smoothing

Bernanke's Society - vp 711