“If you’re going to take a bath . . . fill the tub.” –old business(?) advice Under previous Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the Fed quite clearly conducted monetary policy so as to support the stock market (many commentators — myself included — think they overdid it; see, “2013 Person of the...Read More
Proof that Stocks Are “Bubble-icious” “The degree to which this market is dependent on continued Fed easing was demonstrated just last week when rumors of a Jon Hilsenrath article on the Fed’s exit strategy knocked the market down nearly 100 points in a matter of minutes Thursday afternoon. Hilsenrath is known — or at least...Read More
The “Alice in Wonderland” Stock Market; or, Figuring Out What the Fed Will Do “The next level analysis is [determining] whether . . . good news is bad (meaning less accommodation) or good (economic improvement); or conversely, whether bad news is good (meaning more accommodation) or bad (economic deterioration).” –Barry Ritholtz, “Predicting Jobs Data is Hard...Read More
Wall Street’s “Daily” Election Judging by today’s nasty stock market, I’m guessing President Obama won last night (if you haven’t noticed, the market seems to rally when Romney has an uptick, and falls when Obama does). That is, unless there’s some other economic or earnings news I haven’t caught up to yet. P.S.: My...Read More
The Limits of QE (“Quantitative Easing”) I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around me Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday And I’ll get on my knees and pray We don’t get fooled again Don’t get fooled...Read More
Paid-Off House as Piggy Bank To the already long list of unintended consequences of zero percent interest rates (“ZIRP”) — squeezed savers, flush investment banks (and bankers), volatile commodity prices, etc., etc. — add one more: lack of (home) Seller motivation, especially amongst long-time owners with little or no debt. Why the lack of motivation? Because they...Read More
