More evidence that the Federal Reserve banksters live in an alternate reality. Plumping up the bonuses of Wall Street bankers and screwing the middle class with inflation is all that they are about with their massive money printing (quantitative easing) campaign.
Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up:
The Fed in La-La Land, Again --
The Federal Open Market Committee’s latest word on the economy was released this week, and to read it you would have no idea we are in the middle of the strongest earnings season since the pre-crisis 2006-2007 boom.Federal Open Market Committe (FOMC):
Indeed, the FOMC text is so full of last-year’s-news and rear-view-mirror incantations it would appear that the Fed members who voted to approve it were too busy reading Paul Krugman/Nuriel Roubini end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it wailings to go out and visit some companies and hear what is, in reality, very good news on the hiring front, and some very worrisome news on the inflation front...
Press Release - January 26, 2011 --
FOMC: Although commodity prices have risen, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, and measures of underlying inflation have been trending downward.Jeff Matthews: append [here] to the Fed’s painfully misguided missive some actual comments from actual real companies...
Columbia Sportswear: "From petroleum affecting a lot of our yarns, our nylon, et cetera, and then of course, cotton…"
Energen: "Yeah cost has certainly gone up in the Permian Basin as demand for services on all levels has gone up."
Caterpillar: "So, yeah, commodity prices there are driving upward pressure…"
Newell Rubbermaid: "While we will look first to productivity to offset inflation, we plan to take targeted pricings as necessary to protect our margins, and, in fact, we have announced selective cost-driven pricing actions in all three operating segments…"
Danaher: "Just in the last 90 days, steel and related products up double-digit, some copper related products are up 20%."
Starbucks: "Increased coffee costs and transition costs…are pressuring margins in this segment."
Cooper: "Price/material inflation and several one-time unusual items impacted our fourth quarter gross margins, obviously."
Albermarle: "Full-year 2010 saw $78 million in raw material cost inflation. Roughly half of that was in metals and rare earths…"
Ethan Allen: "Raw material cost inflation is likely to remain a challenge…"
3M: "Raw material inflation was approximately 3% year-on-year…and we fully expect to offset raw material costs in 2011 with selling prices of our own."
P&G: "Higher year-on-year commodity costs reduced gross margin by 160 basis points. For perspective, on a weighted average basis, spot prices for our key materials and energy inputs are up more than 20% versus last year’s levels."
The Fed in La-La Land? It wouldn’t be the first time.
And, apparently, it won’t be the last.
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ZeroHedge.com:QE2 A Success: 56% Of Wall Street Gets Bigger Bonus Than Last Year
