Monday, June 6, 2016

Central Bank Delusions

"This is the market we have now: dominated by delusional, irrational central planners with unlimited powers to create money out of thin air to fund their manipulations.
The only rational response is to trade accordingly: anticipate constant manipulation, anticipate constant bombastic propaganda of the "whatever it takes" variety, and anticipate massive selling of volatility to maintain the ever-so-important illusion that global risks have been disappeared by central banks and central planners.
Until the central planning madness destroys markets' ability to discover price and allocate capital. Then you end up with Venezuela: a failed state and a broken economy that can no longer feed its people despite the nation's vast oil wealth.
Volatility has been chosen as a "signaling device" by central planners. A low VIX signals all is well and risk is non-existent, so central planners suppress VIX.
In a world roiled by staggeringly large risks, can VIX be suppressed forever? That's a difficult question in a market dominated by irrational central planners." -- Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds blog. 
Read the rest here!