There was a time when I was very diligent about tracking the Fed but for the last six months I haven't been as persnickity. Recently, I figure if there is anything I should know, the market will tell me.
Then I just decide to follow or fade the move and mosey over to the Fed fer a look-see.
Sort of a Soros/Reflexivity approach. Yeah, that's me, mini-Soros.
The Federal Reserve’s minutes are often a dry affair, but more than a few investors are looking forward to reading through the account of the most recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting. On March 18, the committee announced its intention to buy $300 billion in Treasurys, which had an instant impact on markets, sparking a furious rally in bonds and stocks. “In the history books, that meeting is going to go down as a line of demarcation, of the Fed saying, ‘We’re all in,’” said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at The Hartford. She noted that the meeting was initially eclipsed by Congressional hearings on American International Group, where CEO Edward Libby attempted to defend the bonuses of those who had sunk the giant insurer. But the Fed’s move on March 18 added to a renewed vigor among investors already heartened by the Obama administration’s revised plans to help banks restore their balance sheets. Of late, the more hawkish Federal Reserve members have expressed concern about the need eventually to reverse course through selling those holdings, which is going to be a tall order in the next few years. “Whenever that day does come, I think it’s going to be trickier than people are letting on,” said Joe LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. He’s also looking forward to seeing if the Fed engaged in any discussion about the various tools of monetary policy that are being used to try to re-inflate the economy. “What we have is a monetary policy crisis checklist, and we’re running out of boxes to check off,” he says. “I want to see are they going to add any more boxes.”...Here are the minutes.
