Business

What is Janet Yellen thinking?

The Yellen Fed raised interest rates again in December 2016.

More than this, Yellen has promised the Fed will be raising rates THREE times in 2017.

This is astounding when you consider that the Fed is promising this at a time when the $USD is at a 13-year high.

Janet Yellen is playing a very dangerous game here. There is simply no logical explanation for what she’s doing here It’s madness.

A strong $USD hurts:

1)   Corporate profits (47% of corporate sales from abroad).

2)   GDP growth.

With 2016 still fresh in most investors' minds, and questions about 2017 pressing, here is a summary, courtesy of Goldman's Allison Nathan, of where Goldman believes we closed out 2016, what is in store in the coming year, and ultimately, "what keeps Goldman up at night" about 2017.

2016, and a peek at 2017

Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“There is no other endeavor in which men and women of enormous intellectual power have shown total disregard for higher-order reasoning than monetary policy.

-David Collum

American Notes

By EconMatters

We check out the year end EIA Reporting numbers for the Oil Market, focusing on stocks of Oil, Gasoline, Heating Oil and other Petroleum Products in this video. We now have two Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Government SPR & Private SPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z44pt793itI

European stocks were panic-bid at the open overnight as hungover New Year's Eve revelers (absent Brits and Swiss who were still on holiday) bought Italian banks, German utilities, and Spanish industrials following the better than expected manufacturing PMIs across most nations. EuroStoxx 50 gained 0.6% - thanks to a spike near the open - for the best open to a year since 2013.

The action was all at the open following a knee-jerk lower in EURUSD (snapping below 1.0500)...