On Wall Street, this has been the dullest summer imaginable. What could possible get the stock market’s juices flowing again? The heaviness of it has emboldened bears to sally forth in the Rick’s Picks chat room and elsewhere with predictions of imminent disaster. Even so, there is one obvious answer to my question. It lies not in the outcome of the election, which for many investors holds only dismal prospects, nor in an earnings upswing that would require an economic miracle to produce.

No, if the stock market were to take flight to dizzying new heights instead of rolling over as a growing number of traders and investors seem to expect, there could be only one plausible reason: a full-blown revival of quantitative easing. Of course, this can’t happen overnight — not as long as the Fed continues to pretend that it is serious about tightening.

Saving Face

Every sentient adult knows they are bluffing. Even so, it will take time, and perhaps a scary decline in stocks, to allow Yellen & Company to save face when they make the inevitable announcement. And they will — the last card the central bank has to play in the bamboozling shell game they’ve foisted on the public for more than seven years. Bears would be wise to prepare for this policy reversal, especially if they get their wish and stocks initially begin to cascade. Their last hurrah would be a doozy — a fitting end to a bull market that has turned logic on its head, and flouted economic law, for far too long.