Spoiler alert: Albert Edwards is not exactly bullish. Perhaps like Rosenberg, he too needs to spend a weekend or two on the Ray Dalio ranch.
First on China:
Chinese policy makers are locked in the same old failed credit simulative policies as the west to keep growth going. Indeed, the Chinese GDP ship appears to be steaming ahead in Q3 at a very respectable 7.8% yoy rate. This is the big message the markets have consumed. But look at the ship closely from the front or rear and you can see the ship increasingly rocking violently from side to side while still making forward progress. And are those Chinese policy makers that can be seen manically running from one side in an attempt to keep the ship from foundering? This is a totally unsustainable situation in my view. But again, no-one is listening.
And next, the US:
Only the brave can react to what they see and leave the markets. The global macro looks an appalling mess and even more importantly, long-term equity investors can find nothing worth buying. For equity investors we are closer to 2007 than 2001 as the vast bulk of the equity market, as represented by the median PE, PB or Price/Sales, is expensive. The US median price/sales ratios is at a record high, indicating that there is practically nothing cheap in the equity market left to buy.
Dear Albert: our condolences; the reason no-one is listening is because a comic term we came up with, namely BT(M)FATH, has become a daily investment strategy. And as long as the Fed allows that kind of idiocy to coninue, nobody will listen. Why should they?
In conclusion, here’s J.Paul Getty:
“For as long as I can remember, veteran businessmen and investors – I among them – have been warning about the dangers of irrational stock speculation and hammering away at the theme that stock certificates are deeds of ownership and not betting slips… The professional investor has no choice but to sit by quietly while the mob has its day, until the enthusiasm or panic of the speculators and non-professionals has been spent. He is not impatient, nor is he even in a very great hurry, for he is an investor, not a gambler or a speculator. The seeds of any bust are inherent in any boom that outstrips the pace of whatever solid factors gave it its impetus in the first place. There are no safeguards that can protect the emotional investor from himself.”
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/aogEXH8kSYY/story01.htm Tyler Durden