CABLE!

...which for those of you who have been paying attention is the FX dealer's designation of the Pound Sterling stemming from the fact that the Pound was the first European currency to trade in real time in North America via the first Atlantic cable...the things you learn at this blog spot.  Anyway, for a currency belonging to a trapped country it slaughtered the Euro today which traded at one brief point in the late morning in New York below 1.30.  Didn't close much better.  The more the market sees of what occured last Friday, the more it doesn't like the result.  In fact the only people who seem to like it are the German exporters whose efficiency and professionalism are part of the overall problem.  That, I don't think, is going to change.



Jon Corzine and a couple of his offsiders, one of whome came to MF Global after a stint as Gov. Corzine's chief of staff where he helped in the near fiscal destruction of the State of New Jersey, testified before Corzine's old buddies on the Senate Agriculture Committee.  The result?  "Hey, I'm real sorry but I don't know nuttin'."  The denials were almost word for word.  In the mean time $1.2 billion remains missing.  There's another governmental panal that is scheduled to hold hearings in order to repeat the entire charade but hopefully when those are concluded the calls for public hangings will begin.  Somebody has to do time for this.  Disgraceful.



The Fed had it's last meeting before year end and other than saying that things were a bit better over here and just plain awful over there, said nothing.  Receiving nary a hint of further action nor detecting the sound of printing presses beginning to turn, the stock market tanked.  I suspect between now and the end of the year things are going to get ugly.  There's nothing out there to inspire investors--certainly not me--then again I know nothing about and understand less about the stock market so I will simply shut up.  There was, however, and interesting discussion this morning on CNBC regarding the future of Fed forecasting, transparency and targeting about which I suspect we shall here more especially as this is an election year.  Suffice to say that part of the discussion boiled down to the position of the ever-pompous Steve Liseman demanding more transparancy and future guidance as to what the Fed was doing and would do and Simon Hobbs who suggested that perhaps opaqueness in regard to monetary policy may not be such a bad thing.  Not to take sides at this point but central banks are really rather special institutions with a majesty about them.  Sort of like the Supreme Court around which there is a now-rising clamor for televised proceedings (not going to happen).  In my mind Salome could have simply walked out starkers and accomplished the same thing in less time but getting there using seven veils assured her place in history in a far different catagory than as a mere  bimbo.  Boy, if we could have a central banker that looked like Rita Hayworth.............just a thought.