Silence is Golden

The message of the day comes from the Fed currency crank Charles Evans who wants to continue QE because "incoming information has been silenced with the federal government shutdown."

Evans' statement is in reference to nearly useless reports from the BLS and BEA that have not come out since the shutdown.

Bloomberg reports Fed’s Evans Sees QE Tapering Postponed After Data Shutdown

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans, an outspoken advocate of pressing on with Fed stimulus, said the central bank should not begin reducing the pace of asset purchases as the data used to gauge the economy’s health stopped during the government shutdown.

“Only the data can tell us how much progress we’ve made and they aren’t saying much right now,” Evans said today in a speech prepared for delivery in Madison, Wisconsin. “The data available in September were inconclusive, and since then, incoming information has been silenced with the federal government shutdown.”

“It is not yet time to remove accommodation,” Evans said at the 2013 Wisconsin Real Estate and Economic Outlook Conference. “The data are still not definitive enough to say that now is time to adjust the QE3 flow purchase rate.”

In response to audience questions, Evans said the Fed would likely need “a couple of meetings to assess” the economy and await data that present a picture of how the economy weathered the shutdown.

“I also would need to see more steady, solid growth in gross domestic product to be confident that the labor market gains would not be undone by a drop in businesses’ demand for labor,” Evans said.

The government had planned to release its jobs report updating statistics on the labor market on Oct. 4. The report was postponed by the shutdown and has not been rescheduled for release.

Musical Tribute



Link if video does not play: The Tremeloes - Silence is Golden

Question of the Day

With all these currency cranks on the Fed, and with incoming Fed chairperson Janet Yellen more dovish than Ben Bernanke, how can you dislike gold?

Addendum:

Here is a comment from a friend that I agree with: "I have thought lately how nice it has been without the noise from all the different economic reports while the government has been shut down. If it was up to me, I'd keep it that way..."

I made a similar comment in Is Gathering Real Time "Inflation" Data With Smart Phones a "Game Changer"? 

Instead of bringing back laid off BEA and BLS workers let's get rid of them. Gallup can easily track unemployment and this firm can better track consumer  prices.

Any technology with a capability of eliminating government workers is fine by me, but unless that actually happens, "game changer" is a bit of a stretch.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com