Dear Diary,
Everybody is under pressure here. Elizabeth has planned a big party at our place in western France to welcome daughter Sophia and her husband, Ryan, into the local community. Two hundred people are scheduled to gather on the lawn.
But what’s this? We just checked the weather forecast; it’s supposed to rain!
Too late to get a tent. Too late to call it off. Oh là là !
“Everything is so nice here,†says our mother, clearly not paying attention. “It’s perfect…â€
The family is gathering. This is where the younger children grew up. It is the place they regard as home. Which is a bit strange to their father, who never expected to stay for more than a few years and has never really felt at home here. But we’ve now been here, off and on, for nearly two decades. And it looks like more will follow.
That’s both the trouble and the charm of life – you never know exactly where it will lead you.
Pushed Into a Corner
On Friday, the Dow gave up another 69 points, after dropping more than 300 the day before. Gold rose by $12 an ounce.
More alarming, the price of oil is dropping – even with the problems in Russia and Iraq. This suggests the global economy is slowing. And in the US, the homebuilders are crashing… probably in anticipation of higher mortgage rates.
Janet Yellen is being pushed into a corner by the Fed’s own pronunciamientos. It has been threatening to raise interest rates when its inflation and employment targets are hit. And hit they have been. So what’s she gonna do?
Our guess is she means what she says. She is a smart woman. But she is not smart enough to see that she has been talking claptrap… and not courageous enough to admit that her career is built on it.
“People come to think what they must think when they must think it,†is one of our signature dicta.
To become a major establishment economist Janet Yellen had to think that well-meaning, well-educated officials could improve the performance of a market system.
