US Federal Reserve

A lot changed over the past 4 days, starting with Draghi's unexpectedly hawkish speech earlier this week (subsequent ECB clarification notwithstanding), followed by a barrage of hawkish Fed speakers - including Yellen - all of whom warned that risk assets are overvalued, then the heads of the BOE and BOC, who also came out surprisingly hawkish and warned rates hikes are coming, and finally the conclusion of the ECB's forum in Sintra, where the hawkishness was palpable. In short: coordinated global central bank tightening, or at least jawboning.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

I have written on the subject of the Federal Reserve's deliberate sabotage of the U.S. economy many times in the past. In fact, I even once referred to the Fed as an "economic suicide bomber." I still believe the label fits perfectly, and the Fed's recent actions I think directly confirm my accusations.

Authored by Stephen McBride via MauldinEconomics.com,

The Fed’s hope was that quantitative easing would stimulate economic growth. But a former senior economist for the Fed believes it has done the exact opposite.

One week after the Fed found that all 33 US major banks have passed the stress test and would survive even a surge in the VIX to 70, moments ago the Fed released the details of the second part of the stress test - the capital distribution to shareholders - where as expected, it also had no complaints to any bank's capital plans except to advise Capital One, the troubled credit card lender with the rising bad loan problem, to resubmit its plan.

When it comes to Goldman's reaction (function) to the Fed's own reaction function, so to speak, it has been a love-hate, but mostly confused, relationship over the past three months.

First, back in March, Goldman's Jan Hatzius was stunned to note that the market reaction following the Fed's first rate hike was not the reaction the Fed wanted, when "the Fed's 0.25% rate hike had the same effect as a 0.25% race cut" and prompted it to ask if Yellen has lost control of the market.