Is Helicopter Ben going to crash the party or perhaps become one of those non committal individuals that we are determined not to give up on? Capital markets will be monitoring his, and today’s, semiannual MPR to Congress for any strong indication of an imminent shift in favor of another round of asset buying, specifically after yesterday’s weak retail sales data. Monday’s report showed sales dropping (-0.5%) for a third-consecutive month, forcing some analysts to begin revising their Q2 growth rate down for the US economy (+1.4% from +1.7%). The combination of weak final demand and rapid inventory accumulation does ... (full story)