Highlights from the WSJ Yellen Live-Blog

The prepared testimony and question & answer session with new Fed Chair Janet Yellen awaits me on the DVR, but, somehow I don’t think I’ll get to it, particularly since the folks at the Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics Blog get paid to do that sort of thing.

Some highlights from an appearance that markets seem to like quite a bit:

8:30 AM – Her last public appearance came three months ago at her confirmation hearing. She showed Greenspan-like skill of allowing lots of words to come out of her month, while smiling, without ruffling any feathers. She’ll surely want to do the same thing today. The last thing she’ll want to do is start riling up House lawmakers.
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8:48 AM – The first question from the Democratic side (from Rep. Maxine Waters) is a softball about the benefits of quantitative easing and the Fed’s plans for it. Hey big surprise: Janet Yellen supports it.
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9:21 AM – “Yawn”—that’s the term UBS economists are using to describe Ms. Yellen’s monetary policy testimony. Why’s it such a snoozer in the view of economists? Yellen is basically affirming what was already know about the economy and policy outlook.
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9:29 AM – Is the Fed’s QE a deficit enabler? Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R., Texas) wants to know whether the Fed buying up so much new Treasury debt is enabling higher deficits. He surely must know he isn’t going to get the answer he wants on this one. Yellen is really summoning her filibuster skills on on this one. Her bottom line: We have a weak economy and need low interest rates. Purposefully raising interest rates would create higher deficits in the long run, she says.

That’s it?

Shades of Alan Greenspan, a big “yawn”, and markets rocketing higher when there was no backing down from the Fed tapering their money printing. What’s not to like?