King of Fed rate cuts (sort of).

• Position: Off the News

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The financial media have made PIMCO's outspoken Bill Gross into something of a celebrity for his pronouncements on the bond market. Gross's Total Return Fund amounts to some $113 billion under management, making it the world's biggest bond fund. So people paid attention when Gross called for the Federal Reserve to slash short-term interest rates throughout 2007 and into 2008. His made the call again and again. Over and over. Until February 26, 2008, when Gross began competing for the King of Gall award by bemoaning the fact that the Fed's rate cuts could be risking higher inflation. All of which is proof that consistency for market bond traders is an overrated commodity.

March 11,2007

"[Gross] predicted that the Fed would soon start cutting interest rates ... [H]e predicted that the Fed would lower rates as much as 1 percent this year, to 4.25 percent."

--New York Times

May 22, 2007

"Gross ... says the U.S. central bank will cut its federal funds rate ... by the first quarter of 2008."

--International Herald Tribune

July 2007

"PIMCO looks for the Fed to issue an insurance policy in the form of lower fed funds at some point over the next six months."

--Bill Gross's

Investment Outlook bulletin

August 7, 2007

"I think they're going to have to cut rates over the next several months. I think the fed funds rate at 5.25 percent is restrictive."

--Bill Gross, Bloomberg News

September 18, 2007

"[T]he Fed has to start now and start significantly in their downward trek."

--Bill Gross, Bloomberg News

October 31, 2007

"Our money is in the front end of the curve, expecting the Fed to...