01/25/10 Paris, France – Maybe this is the next leg down. Maybe it isn’t. In either case, we don’t want to be holding a lot of stocks and real estate when we find out.
If we’re right about the depression/deleveraging…
And if we’re right about the bear market…
You’re probably going to see stocks lose another half of their value. Remember, a correction is equal and opposite to the deception that preceded it. That deception is almost a hundred years old…and has added trillions of (largely fictitious) dollars to the nation’s wealth. An Everest of mistakes has been made. Can all this deception be corrected in 2 years…with the feds fighting every inch of the way? Can problems caused by too much credit be cured by more credit? Can a generation’s worth of mistakes be hidden under the carpet of bailouts? Can the boondoggles be washed away by more boondoggles?
“They do one dumb thing,” said our gardener, speaking of the feds. “Then they do two dumb things so they don’t have to admit they did something dumb in the first place.”
“The whole idea that you can cure financial problems by offering people money that doesn’t exist is preposterous,” adds colleague Simone Wapler.
Governments have been up to this trick for a long time – but especially since the world went on the paper money standard in 1971. Where Americans had a dollar worth a dollar in 1913, today they have a dollar worth 3 cents. What happened to the other 97 cents? Where did it go?
We don’t know. But we’ll take a guess – it went to the place where the feds keep all that money they don’t have.
Bill Bonner
Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success and garnered camaraderie in numerous communities and industries. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all been recognized and awarded by some of America's most respected authorities. Along with Addison Wiggin, his friend and colleague, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Both works have been critically acclaimed internationally. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning. Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets & Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas, the newest book from Bill Bonner, is the definitive compendium of Bill’s daily reckonings from more than a decade: 1999-2010.
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well, by rights most of my money disappears once I deliver it to the large angry woman of uncertain reliability
More great earnings, Bill. AAPL crushed. I thought we wouldn’t see any “strong earnings” this Q. LOL! And you people buy into the junk here. Hope you bought some AAPL when I said it on this forum.
Apparently from confidence number and Apple results, the consumer is spending with both hands! So much for your dead consumer theory as well.
Harry is wrong as usual. Dow off what 5% over a week? Great earnings from one company?
Consumer confidence still below where it was in the fall of ’08. God, I love shorting you and this market, Harry.
And, actually I bought silver in the crash at $8. Still beating your AAPL over 1 year…..
I’ll crack the email database here at DR when it happens and send you a personal note!
The cnbc troll, is out again.Those earnings r not from American consumers. Duh!!! Keep yr eyes on the SS side of the street my friend. Were in the middle of the biggest Flim-Flam ever,don’t take ur eyes off this shell game or u’ll miss the con! BB travels the world and speaks 2 alot of successful people who no bout these things. Watt does a troll stuck in his mom’s bsmt watching cnbc all day know bout things. I’m a young man of 25 and all i can say is. “Why is youth wasted on the young?!” Live long an prosper all. W0o!!! *S*