"Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing. This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole." Franklin D. Roosevelt, On Curbing Monopolies
The economic news was fairly awful this morning. I doubt this will be enough to stay the hand of the Fed, since they wish to raise rates for their own policy purposes, and not to quell any growing pressure on wages from our imaginary full employment economy. They would like to raise rates above zero to give themselves some room to move in cutting rates in the future when their current financial assets bubble breaks. And so stocks were on a tear higher, with visions of Santa Claus bonuses dancing in fund managers' heads. The VIX dropped as it was all good in the Pax Americana. Stocks need to hit that higher high to keep this algo-driven wilding to the upside from turning into yet another 'wash and rinse.' Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday. Have a pleasant evening.
