The Real Deflategate

The Fed has intensely debated
When interest-rate hikes should be slated.
Like a team I won't name,
They're playing the game
With balls that are underinflated.

With a mandate to find the right measure
Of balancing jobs versus treasure,
They're Patriots all,
But the Hawks want the ball
To be at the usual pressure.

The rate of the jobholding share
Is less than appears to be there,
As if it were tested
And then one suggested
To secretly let out some air.

In spite of the fear of inflation,
Wages display moderation,
Since it's hard to inflate
With a tumbling rate
Of labor force participation.

Says Yellen: "It starts to annoy,
In discussing the rate of employ,
The analogy calls
For playing with balls;
Is it something the fellows enjoy?"

"It seems to me, based on my role,
The economy's just like the Bowl:
The material might
Be flaccid or tight,
But the point is to get to the goal."

Nothing Is Better Than Something

The Fed stirred up market festivity,
In spite of low business activity,
From the joy that relates
To their keeping the rates
At zero, as is their proclivity.

With rates so depressingly low,
Fixed income has nowhere to go
So the stock market beckons
To each one who reckons
The chance that their nest egg may grow. 

It highlights how hard to discern it is
To know when the bond market's turn it is,
But with rates to be found
At the null lower bound,
The Dow lacks investment alternatives.

Recovery?

Fed Chairmen (paternal or motherly)
Have made a depressing discovery:
If demand isn't great,
You can lower the rate
But you can't cut your way to recovery.

Summers vs Yellen

Wall Street is looking for men

For the mantle of leadership when,

As the President knows,

He'll have to propose

A successor to Fed Chairman Ben. 

It's increasingly frequently said

By economists very well read

That Obama may stiff

The recovery if

He picks the wrong head of the Fed. 

Dr. Yellen's CV is the nicest

To manage employment and prices

From the days when she ran

The Fed bank in San

Francisco and warned of the Crisis. 

Dr. Summers has those who would vote 'im

'Cause his "gravitas" serves to promote 'im,

While other folks showed 

That's really a code

For the candidate having a scrotum. 

Whatever your partisan views

On the better of qualified Jews,

It's the President's pick

And we'll know pretty quick

The mensch that Obama may choose.