Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Dow Jones Industrial Hit All Time High


Congrats, so-called "One Percent" in the US and the world. All the gains since the so-called "Lehman Crash" which may or may not have been engineered by the JPM and Hank Paulson (see Zero Hedge, here and here) have gone to you exclusively.

The rest of us got double the unemployment, nearly double the food stamps between October 2007 and March 2013. The household disposable income has declined, gas price is 36% higher.

Zero Hedge has the nice bullet points comparing the highs, then and now:

"Mission Accomplished" - With CNBC now lost for countdown-able targets (though 20,000 is so close), we leave it to none other than Jim Cramer to sum up where we stand (oh and the following list of remarkable then-and-now macro, micro, and market variables):  "we all know it's going to end badly, but in the meantime we can make some money" - ZH translation: "just make sure to sell ahead of everyone else."

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5

  • Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73

  • GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%

  • Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million

  • Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million

  • Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion

  • US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%

  • US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion

  • Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion

  • US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion

  • Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%

  • Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6

  • S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+

  • VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%

  • 10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%

  • EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050

  • Gold: Then $748; Now $1583

  • NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares


Ah good old October 2007. That was when Google was approaching the then-all-time high. I had a November call option of Google at $750. November came, and it was Nasdaq's multi-year high. Just when Google was about to breach $750, the stock and Nasdaq went haywire, for no apparent cause, taking the other indices with it. The stock market tried to recover in December, but when the Pakistani presidential candidate (Benazir Bhutto) died during her campaign the stock indices started the march downward again. They went down almost every day for the month of January 2008.

(Google went from $747.24 to $412.11 in slightly over four months.)

Investor's Business Daily's IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has plunged to a 15-month low of 42.2. The federal economic policies confidence gauge fell 11% to 35.5, also a 15-month low.

Buoyed and encouraged by the rising stock market that correctly reflects the real market, no doubt, the federal government is giving away aids to Egypt and Pakistan, and hiring new employees.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...Pay attention to rates in Europe. Germany was able to sell short-term debt at NEGATIVE yields. Why? Because Europeans are moving money in preparation for the collapse in the debts of Southern Europe. Some think if the Euro cracks they will end up with Deutsche Marks or Swiss. This is the same driving force sending money to high end real estate and the Dow. It is the MOVEMENT of capital that causes these trends and each confirms the other. It cannot be one thing in isolation..."
Article quoted from...
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/03/05/understanding-correlations/

List of current writings...
http://armstrongeconomics.com/armstrong_economics_blog/

Armstrong has been getting it right, called it years ago. Dollar up, DOW up, gold down, EURO not set up correctly to survive members' individual debt structures.

Anonymous said...

"Give me control over a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws.”
--Baron M.A. Rothschild

PS - Gold down relative to what? Actually, Gold hasn't had a down year for the past 12 years and counting... and 2013 will be no different.

Do not put too much faith into the theories of one person alone...

Anonymous said...

"Do not put too much faith into the theories of one person alone..."

Yeah, I got part. If you check the link, you would understanding the thinking even if you don't apply it. Gold is correcting as nothing goes up forever in the marketplace, that is not unheard of or unusual except in fanatic circles as miners are showing.

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