“I don’t think the words ‘dual mandate’ crossed my lips in eight years. If prices are stable, that (is) good for employment.”
– Paul Volcker, referring to his time as Fed chairman, in a speech this week to the Economic Club of NY

POINTS TO PONDER

1. Inflation has moderated in the US recently,

“Money amplifies our tendency to overreact, to swing from exuberance when things are going well to deep depression when they go wrong.”

– Economist and historian, Niall Ferguson

Future bull. Let me admit up front that this EVA has been rolling around in my mind for quite awhile. Its genesis may be directly related to the fact that I’ve been desperately yearning to write a bullish EVA—besides on Canadian REITs or income securities that get trounced by the Fed’s utterances.

“No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or get rich in business by being a conformist.”

– J. Paul Getty

“If you’re looking where everybody else is looking, you’re looking in the wrong spot.”

– Mark Cuban, technology entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks

“The worst evils mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.”

– Ludwig von Mises, economist

Brock Solid. In a world seemingly infatuated with the power of central bank printing presses, Woody Brock is a refreshing iconoclast. This is particularly true given his resoundingly upbeat message despite his criticisms of overreliance on monetary magic,

“The Fed is distorting markets and risking asset bubbles by keeping real rates negative when real growth rates are positive—the excess of this moves into financial assets, as opposed to the real economy.”

– Noted economist, David Rosenberg

POINTS TO PONDER

1. The recent surge by the Employment Cost Index (ECI) is elevating the odds the Fed will need to launch its own (and,