"Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting."
The Wild Ones: Natural Born Value Killers
Sydney J. Harris
Stocks were slumping today, taking a break from their recent parabolic rally higher, with a record setting lack of meaningful corrections.
The precipitant was word that AAPL is cutting back on its manufacturing forecasts for the iPhone X.
The equity market is frothy to say the least. It could still keep melting up higher. But at some point, some trigger event is going to precipitate a 5 to 10 percent correction at a minimum. And the frothier the market gets, the less significant this trigger event needs to be.
Gold and silver were off a bit today, as a side effect of a bounce in the US Dollar, which took back what it had lost on Friday past. The Dollar was deeply oversold on a short term basis.
Although I suspect it was largely technical, the rally *could* have been helped by a higher yield in US interest rates.
As previously noted, Chairman Yellen will be at her last FOMC meeting this week. Their rate decision will be given on Wednesday.
The Fed is raising rates, not to combat inflation, but to get off its market-distorting zero bound enough to give it some room to cut rates again when its latest financial asset paper bubble subsides and collapses in on itself.
The aptly named Fortune magazine named JP Morgan as its 'Most Admired Bank.' The magazine apparently has a penchant for serial felons under delayed prosecutions and fines.
Jamie Dimon, JPM CEO, took the opportunity to say that he will be staying on at the helm of JPM for another five years.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report for January on Friday.
The Donald will be giving his first State of the Union address tomorrow. He is expected to tout the great American progress as demonstrated by the stock market bubbles and low unemployment rates, if you ignore all the unemployed and underemployed. The low Labor Participation Rate tells the tale of the forgotten.
He is also expected to lay out some sort of plan for infrastructure development. There was some excitement last night when a plan was leaked that called for nationalizing the US cellular network for the deployment of 5G.
That seemed improbable, since this is a government that cannot even bring itself to defend a no-brainer for the public good like net-neutrality.
I think we are seeing a symptom of battered electorate syndrome, where the battered keep hoping that their abusers will suddenly change and become what they had hoped that those in power would be. Just give them one more chance and they will change.
Well, it seemed improbable and it was. And I fear that Trumpolini's infrastructure plan will be a rotten egg behind a snappy headline. Follow the money. This guy has a three card monte patter of misdirection and the short con.
People who are alienated, and think themselves victims in their selfishness and egotism, often admire the tough guy who breaks social conventions. They identify with his anger, and defiance of social conventions and shows of poor in a willingness to punch the weaker and the subordinate in the face.
“Narcissists have poor self-esteem, but they are typically very successful. They feel entitled; they’re self-important; they crave admiration and lack empathy. They are also exploitative and envious. The malignant types never forget a slight."You can be reassured that the Koch Brothers are not napping, and are planning to rollout $400 million to support a public relations campaign to defend the GOP against an expected Democratic dominance in the mid-term elections. Thank you Citizens United.
Janet Tavakoli
And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
And it is, and they are.
Have a pleasant evening.
