Top grade snark:

Buried in the fine print of the Journal…good Lord, is there anything the Fed does that is remotely honest?  I know that lying has pumped up the markets, but if the price is that there is absolutely no government agency with any credibility, is it worth it?  We have argued for decades that the special characteristic of the US capital markets is our transparency and rigorous regulation; seven months of pathological lying makes us seem like a delusional dictatorship (”Grozny is under Russian control”):

The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation’s biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, following two weeks of intense bargaining.

In addition, according to bank and government officials, the Fed used a different measurement of bank-capital levels than analysts and investors had been expecting, resulting in much smaller capital deficits.

What kind of regulator negotiates its findings with the company it regulates?  “Hey, you have been dumping toxic waste.” “No, I haven’t.”  “Yes, you have, we have you on tape and we have water samples.” “OK, how about we call it three counts of jaywalking and one count of entering a restaurant barefoot?”  “Four counts.”

Well, er...

NOTE I don't know how I stumbled across this blog, so I can't make a "no bullshit" judgment. But this post is grade A. Plus, I like the guy's bio.