by Andrew Hoffman
Miles Franklin
This morning’s Zero Hedge headline, “it’s a scary quiet, as the past month has seen the least volatility since 1995” says it all, of how thoroughly “the powers that be” have commandeered financial markets, in the face of the ugliest imaginable political, economic, and monetary backdrop. Heck, it’s been just six days since I penned “the ugliest economic data I’ve ever seen.”
Is such blatantly obvious manipulation due to fear of an imminent, systemic collapse? Perhaps, the implosion of Deutsche Bank, Unicredit, or a yet to be revealed financial institution in distress. Or next month’s acceptance of the Yuan to the SDR’s currency basket – as Jim Rickards anticipates. Or whatever “election event” David Stockman plans to warn of on Thursday’s public conference call? Or perhaps it’s as simple as the Obama Administration, the Fed, and all other Democratically-biased institutions (the Fed, because Janet Yellen’s reappointment depends on it) doing “whatever it takes” to ensure a Hillary victory? Or, most sinister of all if true, “because they can.” In other words, are they simply trying to milk every penny of manipulated “profit” out of the system that they can, damn the collateral damage?