A Tragicomedy of Acela Corridor Proportions
Nite Owl II: But the country’s disintegrating. What’s happened to America? What’s happened to the American dream?
The Comedian: It came true. You’re lookin’ at it.
– Alan Moore, Watchmen (1987)
Markets wobbled yesterday amid the latest episode in the Rosenstein imbroglio, a new accusation to color the Kavanaugh confirmation, and more signs a Blue Wave is gathering.
Today, stocks are back and forth from green to red but basically flat. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is above 3%, but it’s steady. And the “fear gauge” – the VIX – is hovering near all-time lows.
And that’s as Donald the Disruptor brings his game to the United Nations.
Of course, truth and reality being way too hard for daytime TV to handle, it’s the kind of programming that drives ratings and makes Mainstream Media titans giddy.
But we’re in the 111th month of the weakest economic recovery in modern history. By next June, we’ll have broken the all-time record, set from 1991 to 2001.
That’s if we make it.
Forget about the rear-view mirror. Ahead, through the windshield, there’s not much runway left.
Consider the speed-bumps, too.
The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented pivot to “quantitative tightening” will shrink its balance sheet by $600 billion per year.
That’s a massive dump of existing debt into the bond market – more than the Fed’s entire balance sheet was worth as recently as 2002.
The GOP’s Fiscal Debauch means out-of-this world budget deficits of $1.2 trillion.Read More
