Bloomberg.com: "Fed Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has revived confidence in U.S. financial firms"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

All together now...let's give Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke a big, wet kiss to show our appreciation.



:grouphug:

Commodities Drop, Rally in Dollar, Stocks Vindicate Bernanke

By Pham-Duy Nguyen

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGnGoiVO0304&refer=home

March 21 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest commodity collapse in at least five decades may signal Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has revived confidence in U.S. financial firms.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index posted its first weekly gain in a month, and the dollar leapt from its lowest level since 1973 after the Fed stepped in March 16 to rescue Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm, and expanded its role as lender of last resort to embrace the biggest dealers in Treasury notes.

Investors who had poured money into gold, oil and corn, seeking a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar, sold commodities to raise cash or buy stocks. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities tumbled 8.3 percent this week, the most since at least 1956, after touching a record on Feb. 29.

``Bernanke took care of the commodity bubble,'' said Ron Goodis, the retail trading director at Equidex Brokerage Group Inc. in Closter, New Jersey. ``Commodities are coming back to earth. The stock market looks OK, and Bernanke is starting to look a little better.''

[Lasher]

1. This wild fantasy just leaves me breathless.

I am reminded of what Jim Rogers said last year:

Rogers, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1999, criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke for comments on the currency before a congressional committee on Nov. 8.

"He is a total fool," Rogers said. "He said Americans who buy only American goods are not affected if the value of the U.S. dollar goes down. I was terrified."

Bernanke said the only effect of a weaker dollar on a typical American with their wealth in dollars, buying consumer goods in dollars, would be "...their buying powers, it makes imported goods more expensive."

Rogers said that's not right.

"If you only buy American products and the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up, copper goes up, wheat goes up,'' he said. "That affects you. He doesn't understand the economy as far as I can see."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aXH9wCx1oydw

[Angela Shelley]

2. I don´t see the good news when

investors sell commodities to raise cash, on a large scale.

They need the cash to pay their bills, on a large scale.

[tanyev]

3. Confidence crisis, or confidence game?

[trof]

4. "Maybe if we just keep sayin' it, over and over...

they'll start believin' it. It might work."