The lunatics are the ones who think any problem can be solved by hitting the print button. The world is in this state because for a generation every financial market wobble has been met with a rush of newly minted bills from the Rabbi and the Beard. Now you want to blame those who have the gall to say "enough." You've completed your complete morph into a Krugman-like blind idealogue (however it's spelled).
I can think of lot of problems that can be solved by printing money. I used to be like you, a free market mises.org type. Then I realized that reality can't be reduced to a few slogans and catch phrases like 'let the market work'. Everybody must become an adult eventually
You don't think if they had not eased after 9/11 etc leverage would not have been able to build up in the system like it did and the likes of Lehman would still be around?
If you are going to judge monetary policy by the level of interest rates then the Great Depression had extremely easy money. So did Japan, both had deflation and no bubbles. I just disagree with the obsession with interest rates in general. NGDP means more
Looks like I missed the bund ride again http://www.zerohedge.com/news/10y-bund-yields-drop-5-standard-deviations-most-ever EURNOK and EURSEK going against me(EURUSD working but its smaller than the other 2). Nothing like nailing developments and get the trades wrong At least all of this won't be good for hong kong
And you can't get an impossibly complex economy to have real productive growth and to generate true wealth for its citizens by having some eggheads in a room targeting some level of reserves, or NGDP (the latest cool catchphrase among these guys). What you're seeing in these rolling panics is a complete failure of this monetary voodoo you believe in. Instead of reflecting on what a generation of this nonsense has brought, you're response is that we actually need more of it, a lot more. "Must become an adult" ... don't make an asshole of yourself.
Whatever the egghead politicians cook up it will always be sub-optimal, by definition. What scares me is that politicians keep doing what they perceive helps them win the next election: more bailouts, more transfer payments, more 'we'll fix the economy' non-sense, both in the US and in Europe. Any politician who says he's done with the bailouts and policy of applying patch and glue quick-fixes signs his political death sentence. I used to be critical of market-libertarian views but I now agree with those who say that sometimes its best to leave things unattended and let markets and systems adjust themselves to new realities without undergoing numerous fixes and bailouts.
The problem is that the more brokers you use, the worse your overall credit risk, and the higher probability you find one of your brokers blowing up. If broker A is the safest by far, broker B 2nd safest, and brokers C though N are a bit iffy, and brokers O-Z are awful, then the safest strategy is have the majority of assets with broker A, and some with broker B. There's also the execution problem - you really want to have to log in to 2 or 3 systems at once during a fast market, placing several orders each time you want to trade? The best way to reduce broker risk is to do proper research into the risk policies and culture of each firm, look at the strength of their balance sheet, and look at the stock price of the broker or parent, as well as any potential 'put' from a corporate parent (e.g. Newedge is owned by Socgen - unlikely to go bust as they are TBTF for the French government). Pick your 'best' overall broker and keep maybe 70% of your account there, and then a second broker (also safe) for 30%. Any time the stock gets to distressed levels, wire out most or all your funds, and definitely do so if the rumour mill starts. Any more than that is probably counterproductive. You should not have 100% of your net worth in brokerage accounts anyway, I would say about 30-60% (depending on your trading strategy and its need for collateral) should be in a low risk portfolio of cash, bonds, stocks etc, held in your own name in a cash account, not a nominee/'street name'/margin account. Note that in Lehman, Refco, and MF, you had ample warning each time - the stock price chart warned you to get out long before your cash was at risk.
You guys should read the rage VS Greece on European message boards today. I guess a lot of people loaded up on banking stocks thinking the worst was over.
If the Greek government collapses it looks to me they will go full default within days. I'm assuming its quite unlikely the new government will keep the same policies given that even the current government doesn't want it/can't anymore Stock market might get really ugly over the next few days