US Economy: That’s How I Roll…Over
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
Although the data doesn’t necessarily indicate that a double dip is here (just a slowing of the expansion so far), there is no doubt that mentally, we’re collectively urging it on.
Stocks suck, commodities have all been schmeissed (even gold last week), housing is going through another leg down (yanking the $8,000 tax credit sure didn’t help), the bond market is screaming (under 3% yield on the ten year!) and everyone is getting themselves liquid again.
While I understand that it’s only natural, at least historically, for the expansion to cool off from the initial rip-roaring pace, it is impossible to ignore how pathetically quickly we’ve lost what little momentum our trillions of dollars have gotten us.
Zero percent interest rates forever, tax credits for cars and homes, infrastructure spending, stimulus after stimulus – and it’s starting to feel like we fired a cap gun at a charging elephant.
Here’s some reading on the latest in Double Dip-ology. Hopefully they’re wrong, but the stock market doesn’t seem to think they are…
Barton Biggs Cuts Stock Portfolio in Half (BusinessWeek)
Double Dip Search Trends (Calculated Risk)
Karl Denninger’s Half-Year Checkup (Market-Ticker)
The ECRI Points to a Real Slowdown (The Pragmatic Capitalist)
