finance.yahoo.com/ne...1.html

How did we get here? If you had said 10 or 15 years we'd be having negative interest rates, they'd have locked you up for being crazy.

The Fed should be ashamed it has come to this farcical situation. Former FX trader and fund manager:

"The economic numbers released yesterday can best be described with a reference to wheels falling off the bus. And it wasn’t just retail sales and PPI in the U.S. but numbers from around the world, including China. So, of course, when I woke up this morning the obvious first question to ask was, how much are equities up?"

zerohedge.com/ne...as-how

Jester,

Yes, but when has the Fed ever shown contriteness, much less shame, much less an admission of bad judgment or forecasts? Maybe Greenspan post facto in terms of his saying something to the effect of "I underestimated......" (I actually like him a lot, not a popular stance - whatever sins he committed, his obvious intellect was a welcomed characteristic, even if most of the congressional committees didn't understand what he was saying.)

As I've noted before, it's a funny illusion that if the Fed says something (such was weakness in China is a concern, or any referential statement), suddenly the market acts as if the Fed saying it makes it real, whereas before it was not factual. I know the effect is created by the market reacting to how such pronouncements will influence the Fed's decision on rates, but it's sure looks like the tail is wagging the dog.

But as you say, there is no accountability. Again: Can you name which economists got the Q/Y predictions way overoptimistic? I can't.