Strike 9! Will the Fed Ever be Called Out?

Aug 3, 2020

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Baseball. The nation's pastime. For well over a century the sport has nestled itself in the romantic nook of America's soul. Its greatness captured in sentimental movies like The Natural and Field of Dreams. But light is balanced with darkness and for all its majesty the sport bears scandals and self-inflicted wounds: the 1919 Black Sox, a racial barrier. And of course, there's that gray space between light and dark where tragi-comedy lies. The 1888 poem Casey at Bat. Yogi Berra's relationship with paradox and irony. The Red Sox and the 20th century.

Like any phenomenon, the game has a full life that cannot be reduced to just one idea, one moment, one game. To do so would be the height of chutzpah and ego. So - let your podcaster oblige. The greatest game ever played was on February 2, 1946. Known as the Baseball Bugs game it took place in New York City's famed Polo Grounds where the Tea Totallers hosted the Gas-House Gorillas. The aged Totallers - one could even go so far as calling them elderly - were no match for the unshaven, cigar chawing players with shoulders as broad as the outfield placards. By the fourth inning the visitors were up: 96 to 0. So total was the farce that the home team turned to fans in the outfield for help. One such wasn't even a man. Or woman. It was a rabbit. Bugs Bunny.

He struck out the first Gorilla with fastballs. Then - well - he changed baseball history with a single, off-speed pitch that struck out the side as three Gorillas swung three times each before the ball reached the plate. Players ever since have attempted to recreate the throw. And though pitches such as the Fossum Flip, Super Changeup, balloon ball, parachute, gravity curve and the Monty Brewster have come close, nothing has been seen like that magical day in 1946. Nothing until America's central bank came up to bat on August 9, 2007.

For 13 years the Fed has been hacking away at the same pitch of monetary disorder. And unlike the Gas House Gorillas, apparently there is no limit to the number of swings it can take at this slow-moving soap bubble. In this, the Frank Robinson episode of Making Sense, Jeff Snider recounts just the three most recent strikes: Gold, Dollar, and Inflation Expectations. As part of the discussion we'll talk about Goldman Sachs' claim that "real concerns are emerging" about the dollar's reserve currency status and note that negative yielding US bonds are only a hare's hair away. Also, the Euro, the yen and other important things like Magnum PI's mustache and whether Jeff likes baseball.

----------WHERE----------
AlhambraTube: https://bit.ly/2Xp3roy
Apple: https://apple.co/3czMcWN
iHeart: https://ihr.fm/31jq7cI
Castro: https://bit.ly/30DMYza
TuneIn: http://tun.in/pjT2Z
Google: https://bit.ly/3e2Z48M
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3arP8mY
Castbox: https://bit.ly/3fJR5xQ
Breaker: https://bit.ly/2CpHAFO
Podbean: https://bit.ly/3enSAkr
Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2C1M1GB
Overcast: https://bit.ly/2YyDsLa
SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/3l0yFfK
PocketCast: https://pca.st/encarkdt
PodcastAddict: https://bit.ly/2V39Xjr

----------WHAT----------
Would The Real Dollar Please Stand Up: https://bit.ly/3hWwyHG
US Dollar Index (DXY) Futures: https://bit.ly/3giQK6a
Strike 1: Gold; Strike 2: Dollar; Strike 3: Inflation Expectations: https://bit.ly/39IlJG6
The Fastball Behind Strike 3: https://bit.ly/2XjV11B
OMG The Dollar!!!: https://bit.ly/2XfRamq
Kevin Warsh Quote (Jerome Powell Is a Barely Adequate Writer of Fiction): https://bit.ly/2BNmHV3

----------WHO----------
Jeff Snider, Head of Global Investment Research for Alhambra Investments with Emil Kalinowski, hidden in right field. Artwork by David Parkins, the Ernest Thayer of the colored pencil. Podcast intro and outro is "Suddenly You" by Golden Age Radio, at Epidemic Sound.