THE "FEDIOTS..."

(Hint: combine the "Fed"; i.e, the "Federal Reserve," and "Idiots," and you get my drift...)

Today's economic scene reminds me all too much of the 1999/2000 era, when the economy and stock market were roaring ahead as the Fed continued on its ruinous path of raising interest rates far too high in order to kill the stock market. It is incredibly annoying - now - as it was then.

Granted, the economy is nowhere near as good now as it was then; triple ditto the stock market, but we have been crawling feebly out of the catastrophic hole that cratered the USA back in 2000/02, with the stock market crash and terrorism, two wars, enormous deficit spending, etc. Why try and kill it?

Back in 2000, Humpty Dumpty was "sitting on his [proverbial] wall." Why did the morons at the Fed openly declare their distate for a roaring market, when it most certainly would've fallen and corrected of its own accord. (Ditto for the present.) Instead, Mr. Greenspan and Co. made a concerted effort to crush the market and succeeded all too well. Never was there a more over-bought and precarious market in the history of the US, and never was there a time when our most highly-placed economic officials should've treaded more lightly.

And you know the rest... Artificially low interest rates, a gigantic and astounding housing bubble (I do feel that US real estate was arguably undervalued during that period, but examine what has ensued! Prices are out of sight where I live in Arizona. Where I work in Hawaii, dumps sell for close to a million dollars; unbelievable!)

I would argue that interest rates have returned to normacly here, and we certainly don't need any more "help" from the morons at the Fed (the "Fediots") to "fine tune" our economy. Any more tightening risks a serious slowdown and consequent recession. Stop, for God's sake!! Nobody wants a replay of 2000-02.

I long for the day when the Federal Reserve will be irrelevant, and more foreign markets and economies will be de-coupled from the US. Someday, what the Fed does will not really matter so much to investors globally, nor will they necessarily focus on the Dow Jones or the Nasdaq (i.e., the "Nasdown"). I look forward to that day - bull markets here and there around the globle, and nary a care about what the welfare-statists in the US are doing to further ruin what was once the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.

Inflation? I believe the "cure" for high prices is - high prices! If cantaloupe is too expensive at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter, I don't buy the stuff. I'll find a cheaper substitute. Ditto for any other food commodity, or clothing, or electronics, or whatever. Vendors and businesses must compete for my business. And there's a limit to what costs they can pass on to consumers. Sooner or later, people will stop buying over-priced junk and send the sellers packing. Viola - the economy slows in deterministic fashion.

We don't need any "help" from the Fed...

Our markets haven't really moved that much (as compared with the indices) since 10 years ago - just a tad on the Dow and Nasdaq. We have the least prosperous stock markets on the planet in that time period.

Those of you who took positions in emerging markets a while back have prosperoud mightily. May it continue, as I suspect it will. Some sectors have obviously done well (oil and gas have been slam-dunks, for instance). I would offer that this will indeed continue. I don't look for much from the indices; nor do I believe that the long-awaited and predicted "big cap rally" will take place anytime soon, though big cap stocks are demonstrably undervalued.

All of that being said, at this juncture (as I write here in early July), it looks like we have an "all clear" (at least for a few days/weeks), and stocks like HANS, SU, PTR, CELG, CBG, and BHP have snapped back quite nicely. These are some of the premier growth vehicles in the world market. Take your positions and set your stops...