Today is Friday the 13th. and a well deserved weekend is upon us as I am very tired of being jerked around by the ‘Five-Fingered-Financiers’ who work the midnight shift. DaBoyz have been a pain in my back-side too. It may be your unlucky day if you don’t sell or at least lighten up your portfolio but I am not going to go long at this juncture.
For the past week, several actually, I have been penning disparaging remarks regarding the continued, but suspicious strength of the markets. They have been unbelievable in light of low volume and blatant manipulations. My senses have long been telling me, for months now, that this market CAN NOT remain where it is today without some serious financial numbers to back it up and they are not there.
Markets Are treading Water, Take A Deep Breath We Are Going Down.Just the phony Government ‘adjusted’ employment numbers alone make any sane man shake their head. With current employment hiring it is said that it will take 10 years to get us to a ‘normal’ level. Consider that if 70% of the economy is made up from personal consumption, wouldn’t it be wise to get folks employed instead of giving them monetary benefits lasting years.
It doesn’t make any sense to deprive these unemployed folks of potential disposable income to help fuel a nation’s economy instead of punishing them with non-sustainable benefits. But then recent actions of politicians around the World don’t make much sense either. Again ‘good’ numbers are not there!
Housing is about as low as you can get it with depressed prices matching the 90’s. For the millions of those who have retained their homes have lost most of their equity built up over the years. They had it snatched away by blatant swindling, lying and corrupt US politicians promoting subprime mortgages.
Politicians like Barney Frank fearlessly do their scummy deeds knowing full well they will have retired long before the chicken’s comes home to roost. Politicians like him on both sides of the aisle have reaped and continue to harvest ill gotten gains and benefits. All the while living in style while punishing those of another future whom will not understand the personal effects upon them for years to come.
None of this makes any sense as the housing market glut plays heavily on the US economy and will never be reduced as long as there are unemployed souls that can’t afford to buy up the surplus. Again ‘good’ numbers are not there!
“…Add all these charts up and we get a snapshot of a housing recovery that seems to have stalled or rolled over. “
The central banks, here and abroad, have fired up printing presses vociferously cranking out debt to another generation not even born to support weak Keynesian beliefs. All the while damming the very sources that actually create wealth; small businesses. In light of spectacular failures these same central banks continue to believe that someday it ‘may’ actually work. Again ‘good’ numbers are not there!
Steinhardt On The Fed’s Failure And The End Of Wall Street As We Know It
“The low interest rate ‘logic’ is not working and “the economy can’t gain any zest, can’t gain any vigor” is how Michael Steinhardt describes the crushing of ‘widows and orphans’ that the Fed has embarked upon. In a Bloomberg TV interview, the WisdomTree chairman notes the broad ‘pall’ over the equity markets (conjuring images of a funereal procession down Trinity Street) pointing out that there is no reason to be wildly bullish here.”
Chris Martenson: “Are We Heading For Another 2008?”
We all know that central banks and governments have been actively intervening in markets since the 2007 subprime mortgage meltdown destabilized the leveraged-debt-dependent global economy.
All through the waning months of 2007 and the first two quarters of 2008, the market gyrated as the Federal Reserve and other central banks issued reassurances that the subprime mortgage meltdown was “contained” and posed no threat to the global economy.
The equity market turned to its standard-issue reassurance: “Don’t fight the Fed,” a maxim that elevated the Federal Reserve’s power to goose markets to godlike status. But alas, the global financial meltdown of late 2008 showed that hubris should not be confused with godlike power.
Despite the “impossibility” of the market disobeying the Fed’s commands (“Away with thee, oh tides, for we are the Federal Reserve!”) and the “sure-fire” cycle of stocks always rising in an election year, global markets imploded as the usual bag of central bank and Sovereign State tricks failed in spectacular fashion.
The Writing Is On the Wall, Buckle Your Seat Belts.
This week started the financial reporting for the first quarter and the darlings of wall street are beating their estimates. However one notices that many are beating these marks with lower gross income and smaller profits.
As pointed out in the article below, 70% of these economic reports missed their marks and most of these are smaller businesses. The very ones that create growth and the same ones that the current batch of politicians are raising taxes on. Again ‘good’ numbers are not there!
The Return of Economic Weakness
By Lance Roberts
Here is a number for you: 70% That is roughly how many economic reports have missed their mark in the last month. Why is this important? Believe it or not – It has a lot to do with the weather. We have written many times recently about the weather related effects skewing the seasonal adjustment figures in everything from the leading indicators and retail sales to employment numbers. Now those weather related boosts are beginning to run in reverse as weather patterns return to normal and realign with the seasonal adjustments.
More…
Lastly, It may be time to stock up on gun, ammunition and supplies – O.K., a bit of dramatics here, but some do see it that way.
Markets Hope For Prosperity While On Economic Bridge To Nowhere
by Carlos X. Alexandre
“It has been five long years since the U.S. housing debacle took place, which in turn exposed the fragility of the European system. And with every passing year the mantra repeats itself: The worst is over and nirvana is quickly approaching. On the opposite side, we’re heading toward Armageddon, stock up on beans, guns and gold.
It’s Economics 101, and every country wants to solve its problems through exports. However, someone has to incur a deficit, and nobody is willing to take the other side of ledger.
As old and new forms of liquidity continue to hit the markets, their impact will continue to be economically temporary and only a patch job, while allowing the stock market to propel forward without regard for the underlying reality. “
Again ‘good’ numbers are not there!
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Written by Gary