Mailbag

Legendary figures took on the mantle of "Mail Carrier!" including: founding father Benjamin Franklin, Wells Fargo cowboys of the Pony Express, and nice guy Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  In more recent decades the profession saw its reputation sullied.  Represented at one end of the spectrum by the austere, virginal, trivia-oracle Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. and at the other end the covetous and lurid Newman.

But in this episode of Making Sense, Jeff Snider endeavors to bring back the profession's good name, just like Kevin Costner did in The Postman, a 1997 escapist fable about a post-Apocalyptic America that begins to find its soul thanks to a mailman.  The film takes on a more documentary-like tone these days.  Snider as itinerant nomad, wandering the dystopian monetary order delivering long lost answers to bewildered people asking why -- in a world where a smokey haze obscures the horizon -- oil is more valuable underground and stock prices are lighter than air.  "Why? Why?! Why!"

Sure, Rotten Tomatoes gave The Postman an 8 percent rating with one reviewer thinking, 'Relative to this, Waterworld is Citizen Kane.'  Well, this podcaster disagrees and gives the movie 100 percent for British actress Olivia Williams alone.

Is the US Treasury deluge good?  Are banks opting out of the game?  What's the deal with foreign central banks and their dollar reserves?  Can the banking system function without central bank reserves?  Why buy lower-yielding sovereign debt from Europe or Japan instead of the US Treasury?  How to animate reserves?  Should we add asset managers to the Primary Dealer pool?  Is inflation low due to Chinese goods?  Why is the Federal Reserve buying mortgage backed securities?  Is it a violation of the Federal Reserve Act to buy risky assets?  Why is the S&P500 exploding higher?  Why was there inflation in the 1970s?

WHAT
Alhambra Investments
RealClear Markets
Metals & Markets Blog

WHO
Jeff Snider, Head of Global Research at Alhambra Investments with Emil Kalinowski, not mailman material.  Artwork by David Parkins, il primo ballerino of the colored pencil.