Reviving The Markets (With A Hair Of The Dog That Bit Them)

 

This is truly the World Cup Final of international financial meltdowns! America, staring defeat in the face, brings on super-sub Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve! He's on the pitch! He's scored a hattrick! Can he win the game???

 
Well, the US Federal Reserve panicked. Ben Bernanke cut interest rates by .75% an hour before the US markets opened.

Yes, to change metaphors, Ben wields the mightiest hammer in the world, and he has just struck the problem a decisive blow.

Trouble is, the problem is not a nail. No, it won't work. Markets will be heading south again within the week. He can only cut a few more times. Markets that need to fall can fall every day God made.

To change metaphor yet again (you can tell I'm a novelist, huh?), US markets have been permanently drunk for nearly two decades.  Every time they were in danger of sobering up, the Fed poured more liquidity down their throats, to save them from a savage hangover.

That just put off the hangover, and ensured it would be worse when it came. Ben is pouring alcohol down the throat of a strong man who has finally passed out from alcohol poisoning.