Posted on 03/23/2009 7:57:58 PM PDT by Lorianne
Maybe "you can't handle the truth!" Remember that line from Marine Col. Nathan Jessup in "A Few Good Men," as delivered by Jack Nicholson? I'm a Marine veteran, served under men like him. Today "you can't handle the truth" is more than a line in a movie. It's a warning that something toxic is spreading across America. You feel it everywhere. We're getting "soft," losing our soul: No, "you can't handle the truth."
Investors would prefer drifting along in a perpetual bull market fantasyland. Even when things go south, as they are now, we try desperately to deny reality, dreaming of a quick bottom, new bull, dreaming bullish fantasies in a deepening bear market. Why? We want to be lied to. We've become wimps. We sit passively on the sidelines, letting our "leaders" lie to us, brainwashing us into whatever they want us to think.
'Lies' we uncritically and willingly accept
Meanwhile, it keeps getting worse. And our leaders know it, know America is trapped in this insidious "lie-to-me" mindset. They know that if they just "lie to me," we'll let them do whatever they want.
In early 2009 BusinessWeek and Kiplinger's reported on lies fed to us last year as the meltdown spread: Bernanke, "I don't anticipate any serious [failures] among large internationally active banks." ... Barney Frank, "Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are fundamentally sound" ... Madoff, "In today's regulatory environment it's virtually impossible to violate the rules" ... Barron's, "Home prices about to bottom" ... Ken Fisher, "This year will end in the plus column ... so keep buying." ... Worth, "Emerging markets are the global investors' safe haven." ... Cramer, "Bye-bye bear market, say hello to the bull." ... and in late 2008 even Kiplinger's said, "Stock investors should 'beat the rush to the banks."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
The author does a goood job of describing the probllem, but for those of us (like myself) who were not astute enough to buy gold three years ago, what are the specific recommendations? I know little about investments, but it seems to me if I stay in the market, I'll get hit when it tanks again. If I move to bonds or cash I will get hit with the inevitable hyperinflation.
(Sorry, I just got a shiver seeing that picture of Jack Nicholson... whew! Talk about a Bear Market!)
The situation in Washington is seriously FUBAR. I can't shake this picture of a house on fire at night and two children in bed. One breaks glass, crawls on his belly, anything, to get out of that house. Meanwhile, the other just pulls the covers up over his head. I've heard firefighters swear the population is divided by whatever difference there is between these two children that may not ever be apparent before the crisis.
“..if I stay in the market..”
Stay in the market, but diversify as quickly as possible. Bonds and perhaps the index of the small caps or the index of the large caps. That spreads your risk. You won’t get rich in one year but you’ll do ok.
Forget the bonds, but do go to cash and learn to trade equities. There isn't going to be any hyperinflation for a long, long time. Credit is more than half of the inflation equation, and it is being destroyed far faster than Obama can print money. The Great Deflation is here.
Ping!
Speak for yourself, Paul Farell! I’m glad I know what’s coming!
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