This bull market is 100% horsemeat
By
Bill Bonner Feb 12, 2013
Print this article
The Wall Street Journal reports that the rally in stocks is turning into a real bull market.
Why? Because there’s so much money around.
There’s a ‘superabundance of capital’ in the world, says Bain & Co. It’s in banks, investment funds, corporate bonds – everywhere, except where it is needed. Households are tight. But the financial and business sectors are flush.
Bain said that the world will be ‘awash in capital’ until 2020, when financial assets are expected to be ten times the size of the world economy, $900trn compared to a world GDP of $90trn.
Whee!
Who do we thank for all this money, money, money? Central banks!
The US has a 'QE Forever' programme. Japan has announced it will do whatever it takes to get its own markets pumped up. Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, said last week that he will do more to provide liquidity to Europe; the euro sold-off on the news.
While private debt to disposable incomes has come down in the US, it continues to go up in hockey country. Today, debt to disposable income is at 108% in the US, after peaking out at 130% in ’07. In Canada, the ratio is 166%.
So what happens to all this new cash and credit?
Receive Bill Bonner's free daily email 'The Daily Reckoning' straight to your inbox
Well, somebody is putting up $24bn to take Dell private. Virgin Media got a bid for $23bn. And the US stock market is near an all-time high.
Big time investors are buying thousands of single family homes – for cash.
Apple has $137bn of cash, the David Einhorn is trying to get it to share with stockholders. And oh yes... US corporations have about $5trn in cash, including some $2trn said to be overseas.
But there are many who still want the feds to do more. Professor Justin Wolfers: “By their own framework, they’re not doing enough.”
But it’s their own framework we’re worried about. It’s bent. Twisted. Corrupt, even.
Let’s see, what is really going on? What kind of game are central bankers playing?
Central banks give their friends and favourites access to almost unlimited amounts of money at nearly zero rate of interest. What do they do with the money? They buy valuable assets – houses, office buildings, companies, gold and silver.
Ordinary households aren’t getting the money; it’s locked up in the hands of the 1% or even the one tenth of the 1%. And there aren’t enough of these rich insiders to move consumer markets. Toilet paper and gasoline move up slowly. But prices for stocks, bonds, Manhattan real estate and expensive works of art go up fast.
Meanwhile, home ownership, by the people who live in them, is going down.
Stock ownership, by the middle class, is also on the decline.
Powerful, well-financed groups are buying. Middle America – short of funds – is not.
The elegance of this scam is breathtaking. Central banks print money to ‘stimulate the economy’. It doesn’t stimulate the real economy. It just makes it look as though there is real growth. Asset prices go up, just as they would in a real boom.
But in a real boom, most people would become wealthier and better off. In a phoney boom, only a few become wealthier. A phoney boom does not create wealth, it just transfers existing wealth. Central bankers give new money to their friends. The friends use it to capture a larger share of the real wealth in the nation.
• Don't miss Bill's next Daily Reckoning. To receive the next article straight into your inbox as soon as he's written it,
sign up to the email list here .
Information in The Daily Reckoning is for general information only and is not intended to be relied upon by individual readers in making (or not making) specific investment decisions. Appropriate independent advice should be obtained before making any such decision. Your capital is at risk when you invest in shares - you can lose some or all of your money, so never risk more than you can afford to lose. Always seek personal advice if you are unsure about the suitability of any investment. The Daily Reckoning is an unregulated product published by Fleet Street Publications Ltd. Customer services: 020 7633 3600. Fleet Street Publications Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do FSA number: 1152 34
Published in
Global economy
| More
articles
by
Bill Bonner
Related articles
-
By Bill Bonner, May 21, 2013
-
By Bill Bonner, May 20, 2013
-
By Bill Bonner, May 16, 2013
-
By Bill Bonner, May 16, 2013
FREE - MoneyWeek's daily investment email
Our free daily email, Money Morning, is an informative and enjoyable analysis of what's going on in the markets. Written by our Editor, John Stepek, and guest contributors.
Sign up FREE to Money Morning here.