I'd say it is a real long shot that any change will be made before the election. And I mean real long.
Quote from Swan Noir:
Seems a bit like the man who jumps from the 90th floor of the Empire State Building and shouts as he flies by the 30th floor "So far, so good".
When it takes this much liquidity to provide <2% growth it is more like a coma than a recession. It is scary jut how much intensive care it takes to keep this patient alive. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to GDP next year if we remove the life support?
Quote from bonds
I thought we just needed to look at the GDP prints to see whether or not we're in recession? Are we making this more complicated than we need to?
That's exactly it. You, Denner, and others nailed it. To add insult to injury, CPI is totally understated, which skews the GDP deflator, GDP etc. Under the 1980's definition, inflation is running north of 6%. That puts us squarely in recession, with a deficit 10% of GDP and QE, 3-5% of GDP. Iow, ~2.2 Trillion of borrowed money flushed into this economy still can't create growth. People don't understand how bad this is. I think we're easily in the hole by 20-25% GDP when all the cards settle.
Quote from brokerboy:
big companies like mcd and ge said bad future things today. google and apple are trading down again. europe is the most interesting spot in the world and i don't have any idea how they can fix it. its interesting can printing money fix everything and what happens the day it stops working while your still printing more and more money? this is all economics talk because the market moves how it wants until something major happens.
Quote from achilles28:
Money printing erases debts, at the expense of living standards.
However, stock and hard asset prices will appreciate under money printing, regardless of the economies general health. A contrarian (buy low, sell high) would find European equities quite interesting now - close to '09 lows, high yield, utilities and solid large firms operating in the core.
Quote from brokerboy:
i have to take the other side if your a contrarian though in europe than wouldn't you be a contrarian on US markets too? i think at the end of the day stocks need to make money and printing money might help banks but how does it put money in the middle classes hands to spend in the economy. its just interesting to watch with all the fed money just offered to the market and fund managers needing to make money the markets are not going anywhere. what happens next is anybodies guess.
Quote from achilles28:
Not really. You're talking microeconomics, which doesn't matter in this environment. Asset inflation is largely caused when credit growth outstrips productivity growth. Too much money chasing too few goods. ZIRP and QE provides a shitload of cash that seeks yield. Where do you suppose it'll go? Even Bernacke admitted all this is an attempt to jump start the wealth effect. As for the US, not at all. It comes down to money printing. The FED will not let the economy, nor the market, retreat. We're in la-la-land now.
Quote from syswizard:
See S&P move down today....nuff said.
Corporate profits coming down...
Can it get any worse ? Only hope now is, and always has been, Uncle Ben aka "Helicopter Ben".
Wait, I can hear those propellers starting up right now...