Time magazine chose Helicopter Ben as “Man of the Year,” supposedly because the financial system would have collapsed if not for the unprecedented emergency actions pursued by Mr. Bernanke’s Federal Reserve. We’d say the jury’s still out on that one, since Phase II of the central bank’s ingenious recovery plan – i.e., pray that the mountain of worthless debt still held by the banks eventually rises in value – has yet to bear fruit. We’re skeptical ourselves that this can or will ever occur, since there is no way the mortgage collateral that underlies much of that debt will ever return to anything remotely approaching the boom levels that obtained before the subprime lending market collapsed in 2007. Our skepticism is based on a more general concern as well — namely, the not unreasonable suspicion that huge new amounts of borrowing are unlikely to cure an economy already suffocating from debt.
However things turn out, and in the meantime, we’d like to nominate our own Man of the Year: Mister Market. Usually this personification implies an all-seeing, all-knowing force that works sort of like Santa Claus in reverse. Whereas Santa makes a list, checks it twice, and knows which kids have been naughty or nice, Mr. Market plays no favorites. Indeed, regardless of whether an investor has been as wicked as Ahmadinejad or as virtuous as Mother Theresa, Mr. Market will see to it that he gets the kind of screwing that we usually associate with the nether reaches of the Nine Circles of Hell. And don’t dare show the smallest sign of nervousness about any speculative outcome, since, when Mr. Market smells weakness, he will take special pains to single out you, first of all, to pay the price.
This is Mr. Market’s proper role, and we can be certain he will return to it with a vengeance and in spectacular fashion when this mind-boggling bear rally has run its course. But until then, he can be counted on to give Bernanke and the spinmeisters excellent cover whenever they tell us the economy is recovering. Who would ever believe such a thing, were the Dow Industrial Average not buoyant, frisky and trading effortlessly above 10000 at the moment? In reality, the “green shoots” story is the biggest lie about the economy since Hoover spied prosperity just around the corner – a fable that bluntly contradicts evidence of deepening recession that we can see all around us. And yet, with the Dow trading at 10328 – its settlement price on Friday – one could almost believe there’s some life in the economy. With Christmas less than a week off, it is Mr. Market we should thank for this dangerous illusion, not Ben Bernanke.
(If you’d like to have Rick’s Picks commentary delivered free each day to your e-mail box, click here.)
“If the general public, (which is not quite as stupid as both parties seem to think)…”
Actually, they are. It is self-evident in the fact that a quasi-Marxist was elected last November by a fairly wide margin of the intelligent American public. The general public, but especially the ranks of the cheering section (uber-libs or uber-conservatives both), like to think that their party’s are battling for all that is right, when in reality – after the Punch & Judy show (network news) is off-air, they’re dining it up with crab cakes and $15 cocktails at the swankiest DC restaurants – with huge grins and on Your TAX dollar Dime…
And thanks to Rick (and a few other good Men out there) for calling the ‘person’ on the cover of TIME by his correct identity – which would be Male – i.e., ‘Man of the Year’.
TIME magazine has been a far stretch from objectivity for a while, but when they caved in to the political-correctness of gender-identity politics, they became more bird cage lining than anything else.
So here’s to Man of the Year –