Quote from RL8093:
Mr. Cook has proven himself to be a great trader and by many measures the markets are overextended and due for a correction (sell in May??). However, his credibility as a prognosticator is not aided by the fact that his bearish forecasts started back in 2005 (or before?) ...
Exactly. Mark Cook is a geek and a loser for the same reason I am in forecasting - he fails to understand that "something is fundamentally different this time".
I will borrow from the great bear weekly columnist, Doug Noland:
"During the first quarter, the Liability âFed Funds and reposâ jumped $44.4bn at Citigroup and $56.7bn at JPMorgan. Goldman, Lehman, Bear Stearns, and Morgan Stanley combined for a $100 billion increase in âRepoâ Liabilities, a 77% annualized growth rate. It is worth noting that the first quarter increase in âfed funds and repoâ from these six institutions alone ($201bn) was larger than total M2 growth ($160bn) during the period. Over the past year, the Liability âfed funds & repoâ increased 41% at Citigroup to $393.7bn and 45% at JPMorgan to $219bn. While quarterly earnings leave many questions unanswered, the issue of a historic runaway increase in securities-based finance has been reconfirmed. "
and
"Reporting last month, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Bear Stearns posted combined (fiscal) first quarter asset growth of an astounding $239bn, or 34% annualized, to surpass $3.0 TN."
and
"At this point, the more important dynamics remain the move by financial institutions into commercial lending and capital market activities. And as Citigroupâs asset growth of $137bn and JPMorganâs $57bn demonstrate, institutions can grow securities market-related assets these days much more readily than they can traditional loans. Need earnings to please Wall Street and support the stock price â go capital markets!"
Same as above goes double (or whatever they lever up at!) for the hedge funds too.
And on balance all of this liquidity is aligned long and has been since the summer 06 lows, if not longer. Until this money stops expanding, comes out of our markets or reverses short - we go up and he'll keep blowing up his clients with his silly indicator. Worse, he could see the unwashed public masses come into the fray and really drive this higher.
So, how will this all end, probably badly at some point but where would that leave Cook? Well if some of you are correct about how long he's been calling for this 29% fall -- the Dow will have risen around what, 18%? - in that time - and that's if it crashed now. By the time he gets his crash, his call may have cost his followers the 29%! I may have exagerrated the math here -- but my point about why he's wrong I will stick by. So while I am VERY bearish on the US economy it is suicide not to recognize the impact of a credit bubble.
Quotes are from:
http://www.prudentbear.com/articles/show/1997
