Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Just Another Wall Street Greedfest

The sole goal of Monetary Policy these past four years was to levitate asset markets until the real economy resumed organic growth. Of course, due to the number of jobs shed after 2008, that was never going to happen. Here we are, four years later, still applying record amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus, while the vacuous morons in leadership scratch their heads as to why there are no jobs...

Meanwhile, the animal spirits of stock market yore may have taken their time showing up, but they have duly arrived. I noticed this week an overabundance of stock market bulltards instructing us to ignore Cyprus and indeed all "macro" risk and focus on the "trade at hand". Similarily, Mark Hulbert noticed a rise in the number of newsletters now proclaiming that "market timing" is dead - meaning that the market can no longer go down, it can only go up. Exactly what we would expect at this juncture.

All we are witnessing , yet again, is the stoking of Wall Street greed, as always, crowding out all inclination towards caution and otherwise taking on a manic life of its own. During this current four year asset bubble, Central Bank dopium and HFT bots have levitated asset after asset, only to see them crash on the other side of the pump and dump. 2011 was the year of gold. 2012 was the year of Apple. This year has seen the levitation of a bizarre mix of internet stocks (LinkedIn etc.) and dividend paying stocks. Lately I have been watching Johnson & Johnson, going parabolic. When a slow growing 100+ year-old medical supply stock starts acting like it's an internet stock, you know that once again, Central Banks have succeeded in turning the stock market into just another casino...When the bots run out of assets to levitate, then the entire market will be at risk of decline. Given that they are now focusing on the slowest growing stocks in the market, one would argue that moment is approaching...

J&J (7 year)