04 February 2016

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Credibility Trap


"The fear of a backlash against the political establishment is absolutely palpable in Washington. Whatever they may dutifully mouth in public, even the professional denizens of the nation's capital really believe that there has been a recovery.  It is not difficult to believe in a recovery when your stock portfolio has been inflated by the Fed's QE. So, they are all genuinely mystified about why the common folk are restless."

Le Cafe's Samoan Attorney in Washington DC

Well technically he is Greek, but has a polymathic intellect of truly Samoan proportions. And he tends to hang out with the politicos, such is the nature of his business.

I have a real gut hunch that the glitterati, money boys, and Very Serious People are walking into a serious encounter with reality due in large part to their self-inflicted insularity, the herd mentality of the privileged few, hubris beyond all doubt, and of course the credibility trap and the wonderful ability of people to rationalize anything that favors them in the short term, without regard to future risks.

Maybe they will get the wake up call as the presidential race unfolds. One of my favorite bellwethers are the TV political talk show hosts, on Sunday morning and in the evening on some of 'those channels.' And brother, they could not buy a clue for the most part, and seem to be in intense shock and denial. Only Gene Robinson seems to get it, and he is playing it cool so as to not shock his brethern who are clinging to their sinecures and the 'old ways' of doing business.

Its a classic. Marie Antoinette times Tsar Nicholas in an inability to read the great changes of their times. Wha' happened??

We know that Hillary is carrying water for Wall Street and Big Pharma, but Greg Palast asks who owns Rubio, now that Jeb! is reverting to the mean?  

Stocks managed to fight back to near unchanged today, with a little help again from oil which held its footing.

Once again the financial data sucked out loud. There is no recovery, it is a vapor, a phantom, a creation of the great spin machine of the airwaves. Years of policy errors, abusive growth of monopolies, the overturning of sound regulation, and the coup de grace, the pervasive political corruption enabled by Citizen's United.

Tomorrow we get the Non-Farm Payrolls.  That is often a best-seller in the fiction category. Watch the prior report revisions.

Have a pleasant evening.