- Earlier today Janet Yellen delivered her much-anticipated and way over-hyped speech at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium
- It wasn’t as irrelevant as I thought it was going to be, but the actual relevant part of the speech was lost on just about everybody
- Instead they keep focusing on whether or not the Fed is going to raise rates by another .25 in September or December or maybe both
- In reality, whether they do or do not is irrelevant, given the nature of where we are and where the U.S. economy actually is
- For a small person, Janet Yellen certainly casts a large shadow over the financial markets
- Everybody was on pins and needles, all the traders were there with their fingers on the buttons waiting to react to anything that Yellen said
- I mentioned on an earlier podcast that there had already been a sell-off on gold stocks a couple of days ago on the anticipation of Yellen’s hawkish comments
- The rest of the market seemed to ignore the possibility that Yellen would be a hawk
- Before I discuss what she said, I want to examine whether anyone on the committee could be considered a hawk
- A hawk is predatory; is to be feared, reflecting a tough central banker who believes in sound money
- On the other hand, a dove is cute and fluff; doesn’t really hurt anybody
- A dove wants cheap money – keep interests low so as not to harm anybody – nothing to fear
- When it comes to hawks with respect to the Federal Reserve, the bird is extinct
- They are all doves and the only difference is the degree of dovishness
- The hawks are gone and are probably never coming back
- Yellen was not a hawk, and neither was Stan Fischer
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