Federal Government

The latest from Nomura's Bob "the bear" Janjuah

Power of the Fed's words waning?

he Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the non-partisan auditor and investigator for Congress.

The GAO says that the U.S. government’s records are so poorly kept that it can’t really audit them.  Specifically, the GAO provided a report to Congress yesterday stating:

For Japan, the post "Shanghai Summit" world is turning ugly, fast, because as a result of the sliding dollar, a key demand of China which has been delighted by the recent dovish words and actions of Janet Yellen, both Japan's and Europe's stock markets have been sacrificed at the whims of their suddenly soaring currencies. Which is why when Japanese stocks tumbled the most in 7 weeks, sinking 3.5%, to a one month low of 16,164 (after the Yen continued strengthening and the Tankan confidence index plunged to a 3 year low) it was anything but an April fool's joke to both local traders.

Herding cats is a notoriously difficult task, but Janet Yellen served notice on Tuesday that no matter what emanates from other members of the US monetary politburo, there’s only one house view and that’s her’s. “As she spoke, I couldn’t help picturing a mother lion swatting her misbehaving cubs back into line,” Bloomberg’s Richard Breslow wrote this morning.

While there’s something disturbing about picturing the “diminutive” Fed chair as a “mother lion,” the analogy seems apt.

At the end of the day, it was all about the dollar.