Stockman’s Corner

Yesterday the Fed signaled that interest rates would stay near zero until 2024, but that was apparently not enough. As one money manager sotted with Monetary Cool-Aid bleated,

If Republicans and so-called conservatives end up with their noses on the glass, hyperventilating about the policy depredations of the potential Kamala Harris/Progressive Left Regency, they have no one to blame but themselves. That’s because they have turned Barry Goldwater’s famous slogan of 1964—a choice, not an echo—into it opposite.

QUESTION: Thanks to the shutdowns, economic activity on main street is at a standstill. Government, corporate, and personal debt is skyrocketing. Yet, the stock market is in a mania. Has the stock market become out of touch with reality and what are the consequences of that?

If you want a sneak peek of our dystopic future under the impending Kamala Harris/Progressive Left Regency look no further than the recent utterances of California Governor Gavin Nukesom.

Since today was CPI Friday and the index posted slightly hotter than expected at 1.3% on a y/y basis, the talking heads of bubble vision were gumming again about whether the ballyhooed “inflation shortfall” might be ending.

Here they go again. After a mere three day outbreak of a modicum of sanity on Wall Street, the robo-machines and Robin Hooders were back to scooping up the dip yesterday and giving it back today.

From Vanity Fair by William D. Cohan, September 9: “The So-Called Conservative Party Betrayed Every Principle”: Reagan Veteran Warns That Trump’s GOP Is Driving the U.S. Toward Fiscal Ruin David Stockman is a national treasure. Now 73, he was once the wunderkind of American politics, first as a young congressman from Michigan, representing the fourth

Gauleiter Cuomo decreed today that New York would require colleges to report when they have more than 100 COVID-19 cases. Apparently, schools reporting above that threshold will be forced to switch to remote learning.

The yawning gap between the DOL’s Jobless Thursday and Jobs Friday reports is just another reminder of the mayhem at loose on the banks of the Potomac. In this instance, the Donald and his minions are out crowing loudly about the August unemployment rate posting at “only” 8.4%, but that’s complete, unadulterated BS.

In his morning post, David Rosenberg put the current stock market mania in perspective. It seems that in only 0.1% of the time during the last 70 years has the S&P 500 traded at a higher forward PE multiple. In everyday metrics, that’s equal to 4 weeks out of the 3,640 weeks since 1950.