Damn Bill. You have opened my eyes wider than they've even been opened. I have a check ready for you when you open your mutual fund or other investment vehicle. Also, it's interesting to me that the Canadian Income Trusts have held up very well so far. Enerplus (since sold) and Canadian Apartment Properties have been two standouts. Can the Toronto market withstand the bear?

"Bankers do that and the Administration praises the Lord. This Administration anyway."

This Administration? Any administration. In US politics, working with Wall Street is a bi-partisan pastime.

Not that this is an entirely bad thing. Ask the bankers in Havana, circa 1959, how they liked working with a government that hated them.

Did I miss a beat - was the Fed move to buy bonds announced or do you deduce that from the charts above? I was busy varnishing the customer's yacht today. Thanks.

Bill,

re: your comment on Bernanke.
Funny you should mention that. Every time they showed a clip of him speaking yesterday, I thought he seemed rather nervous for a guy who is accustomed to public speaking. I thought maybe it was just me. Apparently not.

I've heard this many times before, and I am not saying it doesn't happen, but I have this question.

Exactly whose money is it that is being used to prop the markets? So they sold bonds back the their Uncle to free up cash, and now they pump huge sums into stocks that really want to go into freefall. Nice, but isn't that a good way to get toasted?

Maybe they have some spare 'smart money' parked in bonds that they could actually use for this purpose, but if it's smart, they wouldn't like being sacrificial lambs.

Don't think they hedge with futures, or is there some magic way to prop the stocks & get short futures at the same time. Nice trick if they can do that.

This would be a good time to actually deal with this question.

Could some of that 'nervousness' by the Chairman be a bit of stage fright in his new , powerful position. Public speaking is one thing, getting on stage where every syllable is parsed is another.

Of course, he may actually have just looked at the REAL set of books, and hadn't fully recovered yet.

Or saw Maria in the crowd.

procol,

I was about to ask a similiar question.

First, I would like to know how Bill was able to know that the Fed was buying back bonds. I don't know of anyway to tell yet.

Second, if we know that the markets were trying to fall, and it was the Feds actions that gave the banks the cash to pull the market up a bit. Then what are we left knowing?

One, that the market prices are trying to still fall, but now have a sudden liquidity shot in the arm? So we should expect the markets to fall after the shot wears off?

Two, that now the banks have cash they can help turn the markets around? But does this mean that the banks were so hurting for cash earlier, because of rising rates and lower margins for loans and mortgages, that we will see in the US more bank auctions of assets in attempts to increase liquidity?

Three, I don't know this one yet. Someone fill it in?

Bill, or anyone? Can anyone shead some light on the above questions?

The bond and commodity futures newswires usually comment when the fed is in buying bonds or otherwise intervening in the debt markets. This of course would be of no interest to cnbc stock touts.

I like to watch the World Series of Poker on television. A hand comes to mind where there are two people who haven't folded yet at a ten person table, with one card left to come. The first guy bets at the pot. The second guy calls, and is shaking so badly as he put chips into the middle that the tv announcers can't help but laugh at his acting, they can see that he flopped the nuts. His apparent nervousness invokes a much larger bet from the first player after the final card comes down. The second player's fake nervousness was instantly replaced by a devilish grin as he called the first guy's sucker bet and flashed the nuts.

I don't underestimate the incredibly powerful people who control monetary policy. There is nothing new going on right now, the dollar has been under attack since the day it was born. While I do own gold right now, I am skeptical of gold bug arguments about how the dollar is more threatened than ever and the folks at the helm are helpless. I find a different assumption to be a lot more useful: if a market is moving, it is moving in their favor.

Hope my question didn't fall between the cracks.

It's an important one.

Hope the boyz sold that stock they bought on the paint job, or they will have some explaining to do.