OTHER VOICES

Back in the Hippy days a lot of Hippy jokes made the rounds. One of the them was about a Hippy standing at the intersection of Broad and Wall in the financial district snapping his fingers as people flocked past. Finally, one inquisitive guy stopped to asked.

"What are you doing, " he asked the Hippy?

"Scaring away elephants, the Hippy responded.

"Man, there isn't an elephant within a thousand of miles of this place," the man shot back, in disbelief.

"Works doesn't it," the Hippy said.

There's always an opposing point of view. Both sides always claim theirs is the one based on the facts. That's why we post one our our features, other voices. You can decide. Here's another voice: Negative or otherwise, perma bear or otherwise

One rare quality you almost never see when it comes to Wall Street is being open minded to being opened minded. It's almost as rare as crunch birds.

Connecting the Dots

Readers frequently accuse us of being “negative” or “depressing.”

Yesterday, one even charged us with fanning the fires of fear and fright to sell newsletter services. We deny it. Fear doesn’t sell financial services. Ask Goldman. Wall Street sells greed, not fear. It promises profits, not losses. It offers dreams of wealth, not nightmares of poverty.

Besides, when you see prices falling, you just go to cash. You don’t need expensive trading advice. At the Diary, we monger neither fear nor greed. Our only mission is to try – feebly… humbly… uncertainly – to connect the dots.

Of course, the dots are many… and they are everywhere. Like a Rorschach test, we risk seeing only what we want to see. But you can’t see anything if you don’t look. So, we squint… we strain our eyes. And what do we see?

A top!

And then what?

A secular downturn, when stocks will go down – or nowhere – for the next 10 years. If we’re right, a lot of fortunes, jobs, reputations, and mojos will be lost. Defaults, depressions, disruptions, deflation – we’ll probably see a little of them (or a lot!).

Many dear readers find this unappealing; and they mistrust our motives. They seem to think that because we see clouds on the horizon, we must want it to rain!

But wait… They are right. That is the pattern we’ve been looking for!

This parched earth needs a good soaking… and a healthy wash. But if readers think this is “negative,” they should blame themselves, not us.

They are looking at the glass as half empty; we only see the part that is full of St. Emilion Grand Cru 2006. 

Debt and Claptrap

Look on the bright side…

If we’re right, you’ll get a lot more for your money in the stock market 10 years from now. Not only that, but also much of the debt and claptrap that now strangles the system will have been purged.

Greenspan, Bernanke, and Yellen will finally be regarded as the rascals and flimflam artists they really are. Businesses that should have gone bust in 2008 will finally hit the wall. And the speculators, bankers, and bamboozlers who should have been bankrupted in the last crisis will finally get what’s coming to them in the next one.

businessinsider.com/why-economic-depression-may-not-be-bad-2016-1?

Not all elephants are pink.