Friday, January 23, 2015

"Pulling Out All The Stops"

Journos, observers, commentators, bloggers, traders, analysts, strategies, newscasters, reporters, and so it seems just about everyone else has a view on QE. And the result is overwhelmingly INTENSE. They've PULLED OUT ALL THE STOPS!!!!. No, not the ECB. I mean, anyone writing about the ECB's announced policy actions.

Below is an exhaustive (hyperbole?)list of the terms and associated language casually garnered from almost all the QE headlines and articles over the past few days. One could of course forgive any single instance of excitement, but in surveying the landscape, it's clear something's in the water. Especially in the United Kingdom (the nation with the highest and most pernicious sustained primary deficit, and a grand-canyon-sized CA gap - NB: intentionally exaggerated language) which is the source of most hyper-ventilative language (yes you guessed the Telegraph & Ambrose E.P. wins again). Even the usually-dry FT leapt on the bandwagon (sorry - OTT metaphoring is infectious), and sober BBC "joined the party" (drats!I did it again). Just have a look....

unleashes
triggers
pushes-the-button on
massive
massive
boost
huge
massive
injects
launches
pump
pull-trigger
bang
financial bazooka
d-day
salvo
unfettered
full-fledged
shock & awe
full-scale
massive
scheme
finally
long-awaited
fatally
exhausted
deflation
rescue
revive
save
struggling
back-door
plummeting
deep-division
severe reservations
wary
slide
teetering
brink
downward-spiral
reluctance
damage
faulty
disappoint
fatally-weaken
unimpressed
questions
flawed
lambast
stagnation
underwhelmed
wrong type
tensions simmer
inevitably fail
deservedly fail
last throw of the dice
too-small-too-late
won't save
will not solve
unclear
diminished
uncertainty
dangerously-close
save-from-ruin



Poor Draghi must feel like he's been gang-raped. OK, so it's "momentous", unprecedented" blah blah blah. Really? Euro 1 trillion (including existing programs) over the course of a year across an economy sporting GDP > EUR14 Trillion; Net Assets> (I've no clue but'll stake a stab...EUR 70 Trillion??)....hardly worth losing one's integrity over, considering all the program's practical limitations. As it happens, the Irish, and foreign obserservers writing in ENglish (India, Japan) were the most measured and least hyperbolic, using neutral language and refraining from the gratuitous ummm errr gratuitousness with words tethered to reality like.

start
begin
announced
revive
stimulate
program


Yes, the latter list is short...

7 comments:

Polemic said...

Hmm looks like there is definitely not enough use of the word BOLLOCKS in financial commentary

"Cassandra" said...

I should have hid all the sharp objects and locked up the meds before embarking on this exercise.

..."so long, cruel world..."

Charles Butler said...

Honestly, Cass. Are you sure you're not sensationalizing this whole issue?

"Cassandra" said...

words can kill...use them wisely

StuntTrader said...

How else are they going to sell papers if there's no tits on page 3 any more,

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm, Draghi being gang-raped would explain a lot. Thanks for pointing that possibility out.

Anonymous said...

I'd do Donald Duck and charge him--- one bill.

swivel chair generals
hoi polloi
Quackademics
Crocktopia
mediarchy
mark-to-market or "bogus mark-to-fantasy asset values"
amputate the invisible hand
Hedge Fund Hyenas and Zombie Banks Attack
austerity ghouls austerity vampires
Financial Terrorism Octopus
Fraudulent Finance carousel
"extend and pretend."
Debt Deception
chicken coop concentration camp
bounded rationality and self-referential indeterminism