Next step after that is to accept watches and jewelry — become a pawn shop lender.

Welcome to the banana republic — rule by decree — who are we at war with this week?

“The U.S. economy is fundamentally sound,” said President Hoover …

Sorry for this lengthy post. In my defense, I won’t be posting much today. Today is a very special day for me, my introduction into the film world of San Francisco, a debut of sorts. Very exciting!

Congratulations for your improved analysis of a Federal Reserve policy move.

As you know, the press needs to get up to speed more in terms of what the Fed is actually DOING before racing to conclusions.

For example, I recently pointed out in this forum that some commentary was attempting to draw conclusions from an insufficient data set by speculating on the policy implications of a recent large open market RP move by the Fed without knowing if we were discussing system or customer RPs.

I privately emailed you a short discussion of the difference, for review at your convenience. You can check with any senior economist at any Fed branch Fed to confirm.

Without knowing whether an RP is a customer or a system RP, any accurate inference of the Fed’s thinking is highly uncertain.

My conversations on the scope and type of securities available for open market operations with various members of the Fed, representing a divergent group of views within that organization, convinced me that the Fed would indeed feel comfortable, if necessary, accepting equities as collateral for open market operations.

Indeed they could do more than this. I won’t explore that here. I feel my insights here offer a trading edge for me.

These conclusions are drawn over time from multiple sources AT THE OPEN MARKET DESK ITSELF.

That DOES NOT MEAN that this policy statement from the Fed today says that they are using that tool now. I share your robust and healthy skepticism of this WSJ article.

Yet another example of the inferior WSJ coverage of the Fed. But it’s been like that in the 29 years that I have followed the Fed closely, back in the days when Lindley Clark at that paper falsely represented that St. Louis was the font of all competent Fed analysis.

A Federal Reserve official who would later become head of the open market desk at the NY Fed thought my ridicule of Mr. Clark (and the WSJ reporting of the Fed) was pretty funny.

Let’s see what Krishna Guha at the Financial Times has to say about this. I’ll bet you breakfast that he won’t even mention it.

Of course this could be a rumour planted by the National Security Agency on national security grounds to stabilize…oh excuse me, I was just kidding.

I withdraw that comment. Admiral Inman, I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time and I do have stellar character referrences. I mean that sincerely. I know what you are faced with against that other faction and I strongly support…..

Matt Dubuque

Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld has instructed his legal staff to tell regulators that he has information suggesting that short-selling hedge funds colluded to help cause the demise of Wall Street investment bank giant Bear Stearns, sources told CNBC.

>> I love this conspiracy stuff!

FYI: http://seekingalpha.com/article/87653-illegal-short-sellers-may-face-rico-indictments

The SEC’s crackdown against illegal naked short selling and rumor-mongering resulted in more than 50 hedge funds being slapped with subpoenas last week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Clusterstock.com, reported, “the SEC is demanding both trading records and email correspondences” from subpoenaed firms. The inclusion of cell phone and text messaging records will undoubtedly be scrutinized. Concurrently, the NYSE Regulation Inc. is also investigating how some of its largest firms comply with false and misleading rumors that could undermine a stock’s price. This is going to intensify.

Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers (LEH), told market regulators that he has information that short-selling hedge funds colluded to bring down Bear Sterns (BSC). If Fulds’s “information” is of evidentiary value, these hedge fund managers, and their cast of cohorts, could find themselves behind bars.

See Also: On September 7, 1988, Milken’s employer, Drexel Burnham Lambert, was also threatened with a RICO indictment under the legal doctrine that corporations are responsible for their employees’ crimes. Drexel avoided RICO charges by pleading guilty to lesser felonies; a RICO indictment would have almost certainly put Drexel out of business since its capital would have been tied up in its defense,[2] and banks will not extend credit to securities firms under RICO indictments.

Historic stuff

Great, no limits, no challenges, just unlimited funding. That should buy plenty of respect for the dollar and help fuel hyperinflation! Thanks guys for contributing to global chaos and hope those bonuses are ok…