Talk is cheap, never moreso than when it comes from the mouths of the charlatans and quacks who run the Federal Reserve. Their latest “plan” is to start selling assets from the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October; tightening perhaps 25 basis before 2018; then tightening three more times next year.  Translation: We will initially unload whatever crap the traffic will bear, which could be zilch; we will continue to talk the talk as brazenly as possible, pretending that 25 basis points of alleged tightening every now and then constitutes real tightening; and, we will treat the recession currently gathering force in the U.S. economy as though it could not possibly happen. So let me repeat this yet again:  The economy and the stock market are a house of cards, and any significant “tightening” in the year ahead is therefore as likely as a Martian invasion.

Holiday Schedule

A happy new year to those of you who celebrate Rosh Hashanah. In observance of this holiday, the beginning of a ten-day period culminating in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, I will not be in the chat room on Thursday. Also, my trading touts for Thursday (which are being prepared before sunset) and Friday will be scaled back. A normal schedule will resume Sunday night.