VOTE IS IN?

Tony Crescenzi on realmoney.com is opining that the markets are giving a thumbs down to Helicopter Ben ALREADY. Tony is blaming the ramp in the ten year Bond to 5.13% to a lack of confidence in the new Fed Head:


"To me, part of this bond-market selloff is a thumbs-down on Bernanke.

Greenspan would almost certainly have delivered an extra quarter-point rate hike and he might have even considered an exclamation-point hike rather than stop while the markets were sending such strong signals about its inflation expectations.

The signals are plentiful:

The TIPS spread is the widest in a year and moving toward an inflation expectation of 3%.

The yield curve is the steepest in seven months.

The 10-year yield is the highest in four years.

The dollar is down 3.5% in two weeks and reversed more than 61.8% of the rally seen last year following three years of losses.

Commodities are still surging.

Sure, Greenspan in 1995 said that there would come a time when the Fed might either stop raising rates or even ease even if inflation was still rising.

The difference between him and Bernanke is that Greenspan spoke up and said when the markets concurred and inflation expectations were falling. Bernanke is not paying nearly as much attention to the markets."