Today is the 99th anniversary of the signing of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. It enshrined into law an idea that stands in total contradiction to the driving force behind the American Revolution and the whole idea of freedom itself.

Japan’s Finance Minister Azumi said that the government will take decisive currency steps if needed and that speculative moves in the currency market are increasing. He and his policy makers can breath a small ‘sigh-of-relief’ after NFP, the market decided to sell the JPY outright! How long is this going to last? These specific market moves are providing better levels to own the currency. Markets have taken the Ministers comments in their stride. Intervention is a rising risk for USD/JPY shorts if the pair falls towards that psychological 75 benchmark.

Carry on...

Most importantly a few hawks exit stage right in 2012, and more Yellen and Bernanke types will enter.  Also with the 'inflation is easing' commentary they take care of any issues with those who claim there should be a break from even easier money due to potential inflation pressures.

We all know that the economy is weak, that unemployment is high, that debt is exploding, that it would be much higher if all laid off workers were still looking for a job or if those that recently graduated had decided to enter the job market. We know all of that.

I’ve written a few times about how looking at dividend yield could be misleading. One part of the reason is that some companies end up paying more than they can afford to. FTR is one obvious example and I will discuss it a bit later but there are many more.