Wednesday, February 25, 2015

A.M. Update

Your almost at the half-way point Janet!

However today should be the much more difficult of the 2 days in front of Congress. Yesterday was a warm up with really only Elizabeth Warren pushing her on whether the F_E_D via its general council is letting big banks like CITI draft policy (specifically swaps pushout). If Yellen struggled to defend the F_E_D against the "Audit the F_E_D" push yesterday and came off as having something big to hide, her buttons are really going to be pushed today.

As for the other story, Greece continues to be a matter of pure downside risk.

Last week I mentioned part of the process is not only the Greek draft of additional reforms which was easy for them to write because the Troika wrote it for them in their name. Seriously, how stupid could you be to put your name on the draft document you are ghost writing for another government?

I reminded you that the Troika would have to accept the measures which I suspect there was a first draft that they did not accept given the rumors of the Greeks not having met the deadline and the Troika draft being written in the 11th hour, literally 2 hours before it was due. Next the various EU governments would have to ratify the bailout through their respective parliaments and Greece will have to show that it is doing something before a single Euro is paid out and thus far on the tax collection front, they aren't getting very far.

This morning Schaueble summed it up, They don't trust the new Greek government, but despite his misgiving's the German FinMin asked German lawmakers to pass the bailout for Greece on a vote I believe this Friday, but apparently they have their reservations too. Apparently at least 60 members of the Bundestag plan on voting against the bailout plan, that would mean Greece's largest creditor would not participate, and on and on it goes, the point... PURE DOWNSIDE RISK.

I'll be watching the Yellen appearance again today and keeping an eye on market responses, this is when I have found some of the best data and information in the past, but I'll also be covering the usual stuff as well.

Have a great day.


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