negative t bill yields, again

While risk assets are hovering at 2009 highs, short dated treasuries are once again trading with negative yields,

Short Term T Bills Go Negative (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
More on Negative T Bills (Across the Curve)

The bond market continues to steepen on the Fed's endless stimulus,



... and gold rallies as a consequence,

in the news: job deflation and naked shorts

While quantitative easing continues to work its magic by nominally reflating risk assets,



CPI and wages are reportedly flat,

(NPR) Social Security: No Cost Of Living Increase Next Year
(AP) Colorado Minimum Wage to Drop as Living Costs Fall

Employment for Wall Street traders is also in decline as the 'smart guys' have replaced the 'average guys.'

The 'smart guys' have become analysts, quants, traders, and risk managers. Increasingly complicated derivatives were developed and sold short in progressively unsustainable size (RIP: LTCM, Bear Stearns, Countrywide, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia),

(NYT) Wall Street Smarts
(NYT) Rivals Pose Threat to New York Stock Exchange



Some perspective from the good old days of trading, when 'average guys' with modestly capitalized accounts learned to respect the market. Floor traders knew the practice of picking up pennies in front of trains would eventually lead to unrecoverable losses over the long run,

the jobless risk rally

New York City's unemployment rate is above 10%. Now this, the ratio of unemployed to job openings is exploding.

The government cannot end quantitative easing nor ZIRP any time soon.

Deflation first, then inflation?