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Last week it was Bullard, Lacker and Kohn throwing the spin around and today it was Dudley with a notable assist from Buffett. And, since it was month-end, headline writers got the green close they wanted with the third month of gains.  Kohn’s comments last week were incoherent overall while Dudley’s TV appearance consisted of misleading BS with comments like, “The Fed is keeping its mandate” and, “It’s unwise to overreact to rising commodity prices.”

Overreact?  I don't see anyone reacting, other than speculators who are BUYBUYBUYing more and more commodities as the prices rise.  In fact, as of February 22nd, Hedge Funds had taken the largest speculative net long position on oil futures since June 2006, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly Commitments of Traders report.  "Money managers are looking and seeing the Middle East situation is far from resolved," said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks & Opinions in Houston. "The upside is unlimited, depending on how bad things get."    

Of course I mean no one in THIS country is reacting.  In more thoughtful nations, people are rioting. Although, did you know there are more people protesting in Madison, Wisconsin this week than in Tripoli, Libya?  No, you wouldn't know that because that's not the way the Corporate Media in this country reports things, is it? To be fair, in Libya, the Government is threatening the protesters with guns while Governor Walker is only threatening to fire the protesters in Wisconsin.  Makes you kind of proud we live in a Democracy, doesn't it?  

Bad news that will be ignored this morning includes a 0.5% drop in ICSC Retail Store Sales (those pesky small businesses), who are losing consumer discretionary dollars to energy producing companies - like Koch Industries!  Chinese PMI fell again in February but still an expansionist 52.2 but a separate HSBC survey shows a more significant drop to 51.7, a 7 month low. I apologize for the link there to the Liberal rag-sheet NY Times but the WSJ apparently has no idea Chinese PMI went lower as their headline on the same subject is "Asian Factory Data Show Growth Intact."  I must say I am proud to live in a country where we are free to choose the facts we want to hear from such a wide variety of media outlets.  Imagine how dull it would be if there was just one truth and we all read the same thing...

Ben Bernanke addresses Congress today and tomorrow and those people will hear the same thing and draw completely different conclusions from it but we're playing the Dollar bullish as other countries are loosening their money to keep up with us and I do believe there will be enough anti-Fed noise made this week that QE3 begins to be called into question.  Of course, it's budget showdown week as well and, as Paul Krugman points out: "While low spending may sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level."  Krugman points to the "Texas Miracle" and it's not-so-miraculous aftermath:  

From Lauren Beale at the LA Times: Cash-only home sales rise in California

All-cash buyers grabbed a record 30.9% share of the Golden State's houses and condos in January ... Cash activity has been brisk for months in foreclosure-ridden areas such as Riverside and San Bernardino. But now, the cash buyer has become a major player in Southern California's most expensive communities, where cash deals account for as much as two-thirds of home sales.

...

In the Southland's $1-million-and-up market, 29.2% of buyers paid cash last year — the highest percentage since 1994, DataQuick statistics show. For homes selling for $5 million and up, 62.2% paid cash.

At the low end it is probably mostly investors. The high end has always had a fairly high percentage of cash buyers, but this is very high. The good news is these buyers will never have negative equity (unless they take out a mortgage).



The large percentage of cash buyers is part of the reason that the MBA purchase index has not been tracking home sales very closely (it also appears that the NAR has been overstating sales).

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