I wonder how much Bernanke can actually do. The only instrument the Fed has to immediately act on the stock market is the interest rate. But back in December, Bernanke and everyone else knew that cutting interest rates would promote inflation and another credit bubble. So he decided against it, just like the European Central Bank decided this week.

But the market tanked, because traders don't give a damn about inflation. Actually, they can't even care about long term perspectives, because if they did the market would crash. They want to see stocks rising in the short term, and it's up to Bernanke to keep the music going.

Back in December, Bernanke made the responsible choice of controlling inflation and preventing further long-term damage to the economy. Bernanke was hoping Bush's tax rebate proposal would have some effect, but it didn't. On MLK day, world markets took a dive and the forecast for the next day was a historic plunge on the Dow. It was already being called the Black Tuesday.

So Bernanke and the board of the Fed convened and decided on a 0.75% emergency rate cut, because the way they saw it, they could either have a crash right then or worry about the dollar some other day. They decided to postpone the problem, and made the cut.

It worked for a day. The Dow closed lower, but it didn't crash. On Wednesday, it degenerated during trading hours and it was pretty obvious that traders were going short. In came the PPT, the Plunge Protection Team, also known as the Working Group on Financial Markets. Created by an executive order by Reagan, these guys give recommendations to the private sector for "enhancing the integrity, efficiency, orderliness, and competitiveness of [United States] financial markets and maintaining investor confidence". No one knows what the hell they talk about in their meetings, no one has access to the minutes and they respond to no one -- not even to Congress.

The rally on Wednesday afternoon had all the signs of concerted stock manipulation originating in the futures market. The rise started tentative at best, but the index was propped up by very well timed buying over an essentially perfect trendline. The first leg of the rise scared the folks who were short, but a lot held on. But they couldn't handle the second leg, closed their positions and made the stocks surge up with incredible volume.

The panic is over, at least for now. But the market's pricing in a 0.5% cut for the Fed's next meeting, which happens in a week. If they don't cut, the markets will fall AGAIN.

Ron Paul said many times that the credit problem is like an addiction, and I can't think of a better description.

*requeue

Re-queueing this video for one more try; last queued Thursday, January 24th, 2008 7:02am PST - requeue requested by submitter Constitutional_Patriot.

*politics
because, it's politics

*wtf
because someone talking frankly, intelligently and clearly on an american news show is so freaking rare.

i wish ron paul could speak this well.

Adding video to channels (Politics, Wtf) - requested by MINK.

When Jim's wrong, he demonstrates devout denial. When Jim's right, he expresses contrition. Guess I'll never understand the markets.

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by Zonbie.

hey conpat -

was this the same footage i just upvoted here?

http://www.videosift.com/video/MARKET-MELTDOWN-Jim-Cramer-predicted-the-Economic-Collapse

No it's not.... in this video he specifially states that an investigation of the Federal Reserve. Incidentally it's been pulled from YouTube and I can't find it anymore. This seems to happen quite often when a vid makes this administration or the Fed look really bad.

*kill

Permanently discarding this video - kill requested by submitter Constitutional_Patriot.