EC No Flip Flop In Europe

Well, that clears that up. In case you missed it, back on June 27 Mario Draghi triggered the latest declared BOND ROUT!!! with what was characterized as a very upbeat economic assessment for Europe. And if things are moving forward there, they just have to be everywhere else.

It came off as “hawkish” in the sense that if real acceleration is at hand, ECB normalization of first QE then interest rates can’t be that far behind. The closer we are to the first part, closer is the second. Bonds sold off, and the collective mainstream imagination ran wild.

In truth, Draghi wasn’t “hawkish” at all, nor was he all that upbeat. The media, primarily, saw what it wanted and connected dots that it had created. As for the economy, he merely stated that it was progressing. Why that was particularly important was never stated, especially since Mario Draghi always says the economy is progressing. Out of his mouth, it never is otherwise.

More important than all that, however, the ECB chief was left to try to describe the current state of our central money problem, without recognizing it yet as just that. The economy may or may not be meaningfully improved, but inflation, the economy’s chief monetary indicator along with bond rates, will not behave. For Draghi’s speech, it was characterized as a contradiction.

Today the ECB finished up its latest policy meeting. For the mainstream, Draghi is now “dovish.” Gone is the certainty with which the world seemed to be moving toward a better place, replaced with caution and apprehension. Many ascribe this apparent 180 degree shift as a policymaker not wanting to upset markets. If bonds sold off in a rout after his last speech, he must have noticed and reacted with a more soothing posture this time.

None of that is actually going on, of course. Draghi was no more “hawkish” in late June as he isn’t now “dovish” in mid-July. At both times he was consistently confused. Today, he came as close as might be ever expected to stating that as a fact outright: