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Warning Signs Flash as Stock Market Soars to Records
Wall Street Journal ^ | November 3, 2013 | By Gregory Zuckerman

Posted on 11/03/2013 10:28:47 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee

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To: Brad from Tennessee

“In comparing 5-year charts for Gold and the DOW, stocks win. “

Same thing was said in 2007-2008...just before a massive stock collapse and many people lost everything.

Gold isn’t an investment. It is a hedge against a collapse.

The fed is propping up the markets with $1+ trillion every year. The stock market is valued at about $15 trillion. The fed has pumped in over $4 trillion, or about 25% of the market’s value. That is a massive pump, entitled to a massive dump. The fed could collapse the markets and easily own half the US economy by buying up another 25% at deflated prices once the dump happens.

Communism by the numbers.

Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.


21 posted on 11/03/2013 11:43:25 AM PST by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

The health insurance sticker shock will kill holiday spending.


22 posted on 11/03/2013 11:43:49 AM PST by Windcatcher (Obama is a COMMUNIST and the MSM is his armband-wearing propaganda machine.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
For some investors, it feels a lot more like 1999 than 2013.

Obama is doing everything to hurt the economy and the fed is artificially creating a stock bubble because with interest rates at artificial ridiculously low rates there is nowhere else for money to go but stocks.

Having said that the statement above is way off. In 1999 there was a tech stock bubble with the average P/E ratio in the 40s. P/E is now 19 which is higher than average but nothing like 1999. Nonetheless the market is being artificially held up so major correction could happen at any moment

23 posted on 11/03/2013 11:53:27 AM PST by plain talk
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To: CodeToad

The problem is QE can’t be unwound, politically. There’s a chance at ending Maobamacare, because people understand higher premiums, bad websites, losing doctors, etc.

But tapering QE, which is necessary for a stable money supply, will cause a depression. Whoever orders that will be a one-termer. Very few will understand why tapering is needed.

So what happens next will either happen slowly or quickly: higher interest rates and much higher taxes, defaulting state/local governments, loss of reserve currency status. This is the future. Period.


24 posted on 11/03/2013 12:10:55 PM PST by ReaganGeneration2
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To: Brad from Tennessee

I think Aquila48 and Attention Surplus Disorder have the best description of reality I’ve seen.(IMHO).


25 posted on 11/03/2013 12:21:51 PM PST by Shark24
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Once the Fed’s monopoly money stops, the markets will crash.


26 posted on 11/03/2013 12:41:38 PM PST by Signalman
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To: Argus

“...Money taken out of the market will go where, real estate? Commodities? Mattresses?...”
-
I have always been pretty dense when it comes to economics,
but I have always remembered two things my daddy taught me
60 years ago when I was a young lad.

As a hobby, I would go through all of the coins I came across
looking for anything unusual, old, and potentially rare.
I would save them, collect them, and trade then at coin shows.
Your post reminded me of those days and the lessons I learned.

1-A thing is worth only what someone else is willing to pay you for it
(it’s true value or fair market value).

I can still remember telling my dad that my coin book said
a dime I found was worth ten dollars, and he said,
“Worth ten dollars to who? To me, it is only worth a dime.”

2-All money has to “sit” somewhere.
If I bought a silver coin,
it was only worth what someone else was wiling to pay me for it.
If I saved up $100 and the bank would pay me 2% interest,
then my $100 was worth $102 to the the bank.

Those two simple lessons are very inter-related
and they have stuck with me for a long time,
ans sixty years later, they still hold true.

If you own a share of stock,
it does not matter what you paid for it,
the only thing that matters is what someone else will pay YOU for it.

If your money, or my money, or anyone else’s money
does not sit in the stock market, then where does it sit?

Stocks?
Bonds?
Gold?
Silver?
Cocoa futures?
Real estate?
Certificate of deposit?
Cash?
.22 long rifle cartridges?
Toilet paper?

I try to put my money where “someone else” thinks it has value.


27 posted on 11/03/2013 12:53:32 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: SamAdams76

Even back then, the whole “buy gold” argument puzzled me. If the U.S. dollar was really so worthless, then why were all these traders so willing to accept these “soon to be worthless” dollars in exchange for their precious gold bars?


Same reason that Nordstrom is so willing to accept dollars for all the shoes they claim are so wonderful.

They’re retailers/traders who profit from the transaction. they’re not commodity owners for a living.


28 posted on 11/03/2013 12:54:06 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Cruz Control 2016!)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Inflated currency.


29 posted on 11/03/2013 1:32:36 PM PST by kaehurowing
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To: ReaganGeneration2

We are already in a depression. The government has changed the way unemployment, GDP, and other measurement statistics are calculated to keep the infamous “D” word from the lips of the public. But eventually, QE tapering will begin or no one will show up one day to buy the inflated stocks. One day the whole fairy tale will crash.


30 posted on 11/03/2013 2:12:31 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (An Administration of communists, incompetents, and the corrupt ...reminds one of FDR's brain trust.)
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To: Argus
Money taken out of the market will go where, real estate? Commodities? Mattresses?

The market can drop to zero without a dime being taken out of it. Well, that's a bit extreme, but there's no money to be taken out until there's a buyer.

31 posted on 11/03/2013 2:27:24 PM PST by palmer (Obama = Carter + affirmative action)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
You didn't mention precious metals but you didn't have to. In comparing 5-year charts for Gold and the DOW, stocks win.

PM's have more value than fiat. Bubble stocks have value as long as there is a greater fool around. The ups and downs don't really concern me, I accumulate PMs and generally also leave my stocks alone since I chose them for longer term value.

32 posted on 11/03/2013 2:31:31 PM PST by palmer (Obama = Carter + affirmative action)
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To: aquila48
You have described the reason that the Fed's policy has been such a spectacular failure. Normally a deep recession like the one we had would be followed by an enormous boom. But the reason it hasn't is not lack of demand or deflation as the Fed believes, but lack of confidence in the soundness of the currency. More specifically, people are not investing, but speculating and waiting for the crash.

People who leave money in stocks for the longer run are usually into companies that speculate for them (that's what I try to do).

33 posted on 11/03/2013 2:37:53 PM PST by palmer (Obama = Carter + affirmative action)
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To: palmer

“... people are not investing, but speculating...”
-
I find that to be an interesting comment, thank you.
If I buy junk morgan silver dollars am I investing or speculating?


34 posted on 11/03/2013 2:52:42 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

All investment is speculation. The only difference is that some people admit it and some don’t. - Gerald Loeb


35 posted on 11/03/2013 2:55:02 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: Brad from Tennessee

As long as interest rates remain near zero, the stock market looks attractive.


36 posted on 11/03/2013 3:54:53 PM PST by tips up (Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
37 posted on 11/03/2013 8:44:21 PM PST by southernnorthcarolina ("Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own." -- Aesop)
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To: palmer

“Normally a deep recession like the one we had would be followed by an enormous boom. But the reason it hasn’t is not lack of demand or deflation as the Fed believes, but lack of confidence in the soundness of the currency.”

No that ain’t it. If that was it, ie if you thought your money was going to be worth less each day, you would be spending it like there’s not tomorrow. Do you really think your average joe blow (95% of the people) wake up each morning thinking “Oh the dollar is being debased, I better not buy anything”?

My own take on why the economy hasn’t picked up more is for a couple of reasons:

1. The regulatory and political environment (Tax the rich, demonize profits and entrepreneurs, Obamacare is a huge drag, uncertainty about taxes, environmental regulations, etc, etc)

2. Much more difficult to get a loan than in the good old days, due to more stringent lending criteria, thanks in large part to regulations like Dodd-Frank.

Banks have a ton of money, (like a couple trillions in excess reserves with the fed), so basically all the money that the Fed is printing is ending up back with the Fed.

As for whether the dollar is being debased, you have to ask, relative to what. Currencies are just another asset class and they go up and down relative to each other all the time. So if you consider the dollar vs gold, over the past year or so, it’s been gold that has lost significant value vs the dollar. On the other hand, real estate has gained value over the dollar and gold.

I think people make a costly mistake in expecting a currency (whether the dollar or some other) to maintain the same purchasing power over time (whatever that means). Currencies, like all other assets are constantly changing their value relative to other assets.

If you want to maintain purchasing power, your best bet is not just to save dollars but to have a well diversified portfolio that includes many different assets, including the dollar, for you see, once the Fed starts the tapering, you’re going to see stocks take a dive, bonds may dive even more and so will real estate and gold. So your so-called “debased” dollar is going to buy a lot more stocks, bonds, RE and gold. It won’t be looking so debased after all, in fact it may end up being your best “investment”.... for a while at least.


38 posted on 11/03/2013 9:51:05 PM PST by aquila48
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To: Repeal The 17th

Junk Morgans are savings. Your money is in the mattress but it is 90% silver. They somtimes cost a bit more than junk quarters but that’s often because they are not junk but have a bit of numismatic value.


39 posted on 11/04/2013 6:16:41 PM PST by palmer (Obama = Carter + affirmative action)
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To: aquila48
I agree with your reasons 1 and 2 but not your conclusion. The Fed cannot stop printing without a US default, so they won't stop. Since people know this, they are not going to tiue money up for any long periods (e.g. 5 years or more) and expect it to hold its purchasing power. A year or two of falling prices due to some overshoot is not unexpected. Farther out than that the Fed has to print so the politicans can hand out the money for more and more purchases, which is a classic driver of inflation. The handouts will be indexed and the majority of voters will get some sort of handout and the politicians will make sure the printing continues.

As for whether the dollar is being debased, you have to ask, relative to what. Currencies are just another asset class and they go up and down relative to each other all the time. So if you consider the dollar vs gold, over the past year or so, it's been gold that has lost significant value vs the dollar. On the other hand, real estate has gained value over the dollar and gold.

Apart from a smallish correction to the overheated RE market, the dollar doesn't buy more of anything. A couple years drop in PM's is an eye blink unless one is speculating, not preserving purchasing power conservatively. Ultimately the rest of the world will accept your PM's not your US fiat.

40 posted on 11/04/2013 6:39:57 PM PST by palmer (Obama = Carter + affirmative action)
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