US Federal Reserve

Japanese stock markets have crashed 15% (the "most since Lehman") and USDJPY plunging (most since 1998) since Kuroda unleashed NIRP and are down 11% since QQE2 was unveiled to save the world from an absent Fed. So with NIRP and QE (and jawboning) now 'useless' for Japanese monetary policy, there is only one option left - Yentervention.

Suddenly it all stopped working..

As Central Banker faith falters...

Overnight saw some hints at this beginning to happen, as Bloomberg reports,

Submitted by Stefan Gleason via Money Metals Exchange,

"The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth."- Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman

The Federal Reserve Board finds itself back in a quandary of its own making. When Fed chair Janet Yellen pushed through an interest rate hike this past December, she confidently cited an "economy performing well and expected to continue to do so."

For those who follow the monthly consumer credit report released by the Fed there was nothing surprising in today's release of the latest Household Debt and Credit Report by the New York Fed. It reports that total household debt rose to $12.12 trillion in Q4, up from $11.83 trillion a year ago...

...mostly as a result of soaring student and auto debt, both trends we have observed on various occasions in the recent and not so recent past.

Every quarter members of the Fed meet with 12 representatives of the U.S. banking industry who comprise the Federal Advisory Council.  This is what the Fed says about this specific council:

The Fed's Bill Dudley just unleashed the most cognitively dissonant statement of his career. That superlative is highlighted by theses two headlines:

• DUDLEY SAYS U.S. ECONOMY IS IN QUITE GOOD SHAPE
• DUDLEY: DON'T SEE NEGATIVE RATES HAVING 'BIG CONSEQUENCE'

Try telling The BoJ's Kuroda that!!

Nope - no consequence at all...

Yet again his comments confirm The Fed's utter confusion...

Today: