Hey, remind me again, who’s the Fed Chair?
Fed chair Ben Bernanke appeared before the House Budget Committee this morning, giving a prepared statement, then taking questions from the panel members. Aside from the content of his comments (growth is slowing, we’re not in a recession, some quick economic stimulus would be good), I always find it unsettling to see and hear the questions from our elected officials on the budget committee, as they tend to make speeches posing as questions, that sometimes border on the absurd. Basically, they pretend to ask questions, and the Fed Chair pretends to give answers.
One congresswoman had Ben Bernanke confused with Hank Paulsen, (former head of Goldman Sachs, now Treasury Secretary) in a prepared question asking if the bankers who caused the credit market problems would repay their bonuses and salaries to the American people. You’d think at least her staff would be able to keep track of who was at Treasury and Fed. Ben probably wishes he had the bonuses she wanted him to repay.
The short term trading question tonight is whether we see the widely-expected “surprise” rate cut premarket tomorrow to ambush the index option traders before the open, like the discount window cut before the August 17 options expiration. Unlike equity options, US index options mostly settle based on the opening trades on expiration day. Futures are creeping up overnight, in case. But they already pulled that trick once, and everyone is watching for it, which means that even if they do it again, it won’t work as well as last time.
2008 so far: S&P down 9.2%, DJ -8.33%, Nas -11.51%
Update 01-19-2008 09:15 PT - The confused congresswoman is Marcy Kaptur currently on her 13th (!) term as US Representative from Ohio.
“CEO of the Princeton Economics Department”. At least he has a sense of humor.
