America

Submitted by Jessica Ruane via OilPrice.com,

Watching the markets' reaction and listening to Yellen's incomprehensibe drivel brought to mind two Gladiator clips...

Pre-Fed...

and Post-Fed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs

Kevin D. Williamson responds to his critics, including me. He points out that he comes from the world he criticizes so harshly:

It is, in fact, about half of the original piece, the other half being autobiographical material on my own experience with that world and its pathologies.

More:

With the market already pricing in dramatically fewer rate-hikes that the "cheerleading" Fed, Deutsche Bank expects the USD to respond favorably to the FOMC’s signals on Wednesday, contrary to the pattern seen after the last four FOMC meetings with press conferences.

The waning influence of the Fed’s projections is showing up in derivatives markets. After the December revision to the projected path of interest rates, traders responded much less than they did earlier in the year in the market for derivatives known as overnight-indexed swaps.

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

Talk about sheep being led to the slaughter. The S&P 500 is up 11% from its February 11th intra-day low (1812) because Wall Street still has inventory to unload. That much is par for the course.