Business

Having been unable - or unwilling - to answer various reporters' questions with regard the 'odd' timing of The Fed's rate hike yesterday, we thought we would offer just one more chart to question the credibility of the central planners. Plucked from The Fed's own research, last week saw the largest surge in St.Louis Fed's Financial Stress Index (FSI) since August... and as Yellen proclaimed "all clear" the FSI was screaming "Danger" even louder than it did in September - when The Fed folded.

From the time Turkey ambushed and downed a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border late last month, the world has developed a fascination with Islamic State’s illicit and highly lucrative oil smuggling business. 

On Tuesday, the day before Yellen's historic rate hike, the S&P closed at 2,043. Today, the day after a Fed announcement which everyone cheered overnight as simply fantastic, perfect, "dovishly goldilocks", and countless other superlatives because it sent the market surging, the S&P closed at.... 2,042. In the process all the euphoric gains from the widely telegraphed Yellen announcement and press conference have been completely wiped out, not just for stocks...

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The greatest monetary tools that Central Banks currently possess are “promises.”

Indeed, a review of various markets’ reactions to Central Bank verbal interventions over the last few years quickly reveals that promises of additional monetary policy produce far greater results than the actual monetary policies themselves!

Consider the bond market’s reactions to the Fed’s QE 2 and Operation Twist programs.