This was one of the cheery headlines that greeted me this morning (Friday March, 28 2014), proffered up by those fine folks at CNBC. The expert providing the fearsome warning was private equity guru, John W. “Jay” Jordan, II. Even though Mr. Jordan is a native of my home town, about my age and has…
Tag: Ben Bernanke
Session 90-In StockMarket Land, the difference between apples and oranges is often hard to discern
“Markets flooded with cash, should Fed prep to stamp out risk(Reuters via CNBC 2/21/2014)?” First of all, this is a stupid question as their mandate deals with unemployment and inflation. They are only the ‘risk police’ when it comes to risk of inflation. They can warn about “irrational exuberance”, but it is not their job…
Session 88–“The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
You know the story about the shepherd boy who thought it was a kick to, on a whim, cry “wolf” alerting his village to a wolf attack on the flock that wasn’t really happening. When a wolf finally did attack, no one paid any attention to his pleas for help. I think we have recently…
Session 78–Apres Taper, What’s Next?
The confused nature of media reaction to the market’s move higher on last Wednesday’s Fed announcement on the taper of Quantitative Easing (QE), indicates they are totally lost. They can’t figure out why the market responded as it did, up nearly 300 points on the Dow. In my world it makes total sense. Here is…
Session 77–What Made The Media Salivate In 2013
I started my blog to give clarity and perspective to the daily barrage of hype and misinformation from the mainstream and financial media. I hope my work has been helpful in that respect. As we approach the New Year, I thought a retrospective on kortsessions might be useful, a look-back on the issues that the…
Session 67–I love it when people agree with me!
“The whole, entire secular bull market remains in its very early stages.” These are the words Brian Belski, BMO Capital Markets Strategist, one of the four panel members interviewed by Maria Bartiromo yesterday (10/22/13) on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” The clip, ‘Forced into the game’ of buying U.S. stocks,’ features along with Belski: the man who…
Session 66–“Don’t Fight The Fed–Fear it.”
An inconvenient truth for the market. Yesterday (October 22, 2013) I woke up to the headline on MarketWatch.com, “Stocks Open Higher On Fed Optimism After Tepid Jobs (number).” The inconvenient truth is that we live in a convoluted world where bad news is good news and good news is awful (for stocks). Even a government…
Session 60–Mandate 3, “Do No Harm”
The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate: maximum employment ( between 5.2% and 6% unemployment ) and price stability (currently, inflation at 2% or less). After last Wednesday’s decision on ‘the taper’ I think they should take a page from the medical profession and add a third mandate, “do no harm.” I believe the Fed’s…
Session 59– What the #%&*, No Taper!!!
One thing you learn, or should learn after being around the market as long as I have, is that “the crowd” is generally always wrong. I was with “the crowd” today. I expected the Fed to begin tapering of its Quantitative Easing Program. Boy was I (and ‘the crowd’) wrong. On the short-term, the market…
Session 58–Pass The Xanax, Please!
This week of September 15, 2013, has set up to be one full of angst. We have a Fed Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday culminating with a pronouncement on the “Dreaded Taper.” Although the old saw about “September, The Cruelest Month,” seems to be heading for the same fate as “Sell in May…