Recently declassified memorandum from Fed Chief Arthur Burns to President Gerald Ford:
The price pattern reminds you that every movement of importance is but a repetition of similar price movements, that just as soon as you can familiarize yourself with the actions of the past, you will be able to anticipate and act correctly and profitably upon forthcoming movements. —Jesse Livermore
The US$ is at the high of the day vs the euro coincident with Greek CDS at the wides of the morning by 20 bps to 307 bps following the news this morning. This level is a 2 week high. In sympathy, CDS is wider in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. Bond yields are higher too and Greek stocks in particular closed down 3.4%. There is also an idiotic rumor out there that the Fed is again going to raise the discount rate after doing so a month ago. While they easily may but likely won't anytime soon, there is...
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October 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am
It’s a bit mean not to acknowledge zero hedge as the source don’t you think?
What is it with bloggers these days?
W
October 8th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Interesting cast of characters cc’d at the end. Greenspan, Seidman, Simon, Kissinger… also interesting to see how much they cared about French opinion at the time, and the still-prickliness in Congress with some over leaving the watered down Bretton Woods Gold standard. Also the willingness to trade one issue for an unrelated issue.
We are still feeling the effects today of going off the gold standard. Governments have not learned what they really want monetary/currency policies to be — they overstimulated for 30-35 years, and now we are in the tank over much of the globe.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
w,
the story has been around, see also http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=Recently+declassified+memorandum+from+Fed+Chief+Arthur+Burns+to+President+Gerald+Ford
~~
David,
to your observation: “..the still-prickliness in Congress with some over leaving the watered down Bretton Woods Gold standard.”
Now, ~30 years later, CBs buy/sell/lease Gold with abandon. Time, Memory’s greatest adversary, especially when the ‘young ‘uns’ are never taught..
and, this: “they overstimulated for 30-35 years, and now we are in the tank over much of the globe.”
one Man’s ‘overstimulated’, is another M*n’s ‘Financial Strip-mining’..no wonder the ‘tank’ is so deep..
also, w/this: “Governments have not learned what they really want monetary/currency policies to be ..”
it, too, is a matter of perspective. from here http://www.policestateplanning.com/cfr.htm
it’d seem that the have learned, and rather well, at that..
October 8th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
“Liquidity creation of such extraordinary magnitude would seriously endanger, perhaps even frustrate, our efforts and those of other prudent nations to get inflation under reasonable control.”
We have come a long way…