The big question for financial markets is whether the Fed will raise rates in March or June.

Every single econ report came in at the high end of the forecast, or outright beat expectations!

This past week was dominated by Jackson Hole, the Fed minutes, and the fact that many traders were on a beach working on their tans. Missed in all of this was a week where every single econ report came in at the high end of the forecast, or outright beat expectations.

It is obvious in Janet Yellen`s brief tenure as Fed Chairperson that she is too dovish to be an objective leader at the Federal Reserve, she isn`t even the most qualified representative on the current configuration of the voting members.

The ECB needs to learn the lessons of Japan that actually raising interest rates instead of lowering interest rates once you cross the 50 basis point threshold is actually simulative for growth by better incentivizing the right kind of capital investment in the region to more productive means.

It has been a common theme in financial markets to push the limits on any possible edge, so if there are restrictions on banks and financial institutions use of leverage, lobby for change, or if activity falls under a certain governmental regulation.

Yesterday the USDA`s annual report laid out another 2% increase in the cost to raise a child in the United States.

El-Erian was on CNBC and he said something that a lot of people have been saying regarding the bond market, and it needs to be cleared up, because the amount of poor understanding regarding the bond market by people who make their living, i.e., are in the financial market business astounding.

It is obvious that retail sales numbers are going to be awful for eternity because they are antiquated reports that fail to adequately capture the changing consumer trend of shopping online.

The Fed may pat themselves on the back for creating the ‘wealth effect’ in stocks, and hope like heck that some of this wealth trickled down and through the rest of the economy.

The Fed keeps moving their targets when they originally thought it was a good idea to provide forward guidance for markets, then when that guidance was met, they started moving the targets.

Now that geopolitical events seem to be moderating the markets will get back to focusing on the economic data, manufacturing reports, the FOMC, business indicators and inflation levels for future monetary policy direction regarding the economy and interest rates.

It should be noted that the US economic data was actually very positive for the week overall with some really stellar numbers in Factory Orders, ISM Non-Mfg. Index, Productivity and Jobless Claims.

Thank goodness real time football is just a couple of weeks away. In fact, when it comes to jumpstarting the economy, I'll choose football over the Federal Reserve any day.

It is ironic that President Obama in his West Point speech posited that the US couldn`t be the world`s police, and intervene in every single dispute all over the globe; and yet his foreign policy approach has ended up getting involved in every single dispute all over the world.

One of the arguments for why US Bonds are such an attractive investment even at these low yields is that relative to European Bonds the US Treasuries provide such a higher yield, but this analysis is shortsighted because it fails to take into account the factor of inflation.