Friday, August 16, 2013

E. F. Lex 'splains the market

‘Splain this.  The stock market has been going great guns since…well for a long time.  In fact, I think the current bull market can be traced back to the exact day that I decided to get out of the market.  Anyway, it’s been going great guns for a while.

This seems odd to me as the economy writ large is pretty much in a shambles.  Unemployment, food stamps and disability payments are all up.  GDP, hiring, number of people working are all down.  So what gives?  What are “investors” investing in?

I thought investments were made based on silly calculations such as a company’s profitability, on hand cash to debt ratio, overall health of the economy, abundance of a trained work force.  None of that seems to matter in the current bull market run.

What does matter, it seems, is the government manipulation of the market.  Every time the Fed indicates it’s going to tighten the money supply, the market drops triple digits.  Charles Krauthammer recently reminded us of Milton Freidman’s economic axiom, anything that cannot last forever will, at some point, end.

So it is with government manipulation of the market.  It cannot continue to pump huge sums of money into the market everyday forever.  At some point it will end.  Investors apparently have more faith in government money than they do in the market itself.

When that money dries up, what happens to the market?  I think economist call it a “correction.”  That’s why, I suppose, the markets fall when the fed indicates a tightening of the money supply.  It’s simply the market correcting - valuing companies along traditional lines instead of the artificial ones that include free government money.

So why are LB and his team of economic half-wits manipulating the market?  Why cater to these fat cats?  As the “Occupy” crowd might chant - F-em.  Well, apparently it’s a lot easier to manipulate the market than it is to manipulate the actual economy.  By manipulating the market, even while the traditional markers of economic strength suck, LB and the half-wits can claim, “The economy is rebounding.  Look at the stock market.”

So if I were an investor, I’d bet nothing is going to happen with the fed money supply going into the market until after the mid-term election.

OTHER NEWS:  Several rodeo horses have been fired for impersonating Moochel Obama's fat azzz.

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