What’s the best way to get through a debt crisis? Straight through was our advice last week. For at least a thousand years, the business cycle went round and round without help from central bankers or economists. It is only since these geniuses have been on the case that really serious problems have arisen.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) raised its growth outlook for industrialized countries for the first time in two years and said the United States would experience a quicker recovery than Europe.

When the Labor Department recently reported that U.S. payrolls fell by 345,000 jobs in May – the lowest total in eight months – commentators were suddenly spotting “green shoots” of economic recovery virtually everywhere they looked.

By now, you have surely heard that our elitist banks passed their recent government sponsored “stress test”? Forget about it! Relying on this incestuous bunch to grade themselves is like putting Madonna in charge of screening convent applicants. Take no comfort in shams of this nature.

The Fed pulled out its “nuclear” option last week when it announced coming purchases of $300 billion in long term Treasuries (and other similar extravaganzas). This is an act of total desperation.

I thought I was dreaming when I read on Bloomberg.com that short-term Treasuries rose in market value as buyers rushed to buy them, thus “pushing rates on the three-month bill negative for the first time, as investors gravitate toward the safety of U.S. government debt amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

After U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers meet today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday), most experts expect a half a percentage point cut in the benchmark Federal Funds Rate – which is already 1.0%.

Trading Theme returns…  Automakers’ bailout vote today…  Not using all your arrows…  Housing Starts go back to 1959! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!