Thursday, March 10, 2011

“Bull” Turns Two

So the “Bull” market turned two yesterday and while I find the run suspicious, it’s as good a time as any to give this old bull a salute…

Bull… you may be all juiced up on the Feds hot money and running scared as a desperate nation of speculators and gamblers screams “Booyah!” at your back… you might even be heading for an epic finish that will crescendo with a final day of reckoning… but for today PaperEconomy salutes you!

Now… back to the realism.

Sure this bull has been running, but it’s hard not to be skeptical of the trend given that the Fed chair Bernanke affirmed twice last week that he believes the surge in equity prices is coming as a result of the Feds QE2 policy.

It’s difficult to imagine the circumstances whereby the head of the Federal Reserve could take full credit for a historic run in stock prices and simultaneously be correct on the price level.

Besides, this is the very same Fed that some years ago argued convincingly against the Feds ability to choose assets price levels preferring instead to believe that the free market itself was the wiser participant.

Oh how things have changed.

In any event, all irrational things must come to an end at some point… the tech bubble burst leaving scores of losses and smarting “investors”… the housing bubble collapsed clearing away a generation of delusions and exposing mountains of paper fraud and specious dealings on the part of households, firms and the government… will the latest installment of “man versus reality” trend any differently… I doubt it.