Following is the text of an email I sent earlier today:
I hope you and your family had a great Christmas!
I read
several articles on the Kiyosaki website. I am a fan of Robert Kiyosaki,
and I've read 2-3 of his books (just not recently)! I like this quote
in particular from his website, written by Richard Duncan:
"The press has attributed the Fed’s decision to taper to an improvement
in the outlook for the economy. I don’t believe that is the correct
explanation. The recovery is still too weak and uncertain to justify
tapering on those grounds. In my opinion, the real reason is to prevent
excess liquidity from creating a new, destabilizing asset price bubble
in stocks and property."
But stocks continue the ramp-up into
record territory. The futures are higher today (Dec 26), and are set to
hit the 50th all-time record high this year -- again, if stocks remain
at these levels by the end of the day today. But the volume is razor
thin, even for holiday trading (thin trading is typical for holidays,
but this is exceptional even for a holiday)!
I also perused
Richard Duncan's economics website, and saved it. He's very sharp, in my
opinion. I then did some research on Mr. Duncan. He has been
interviewed numerous times in the media. He has also written some
best-selling books. I then remembered having seen him in a very lengthy
interview several months ago, which I found on Youtube and watched
again. He had just released his new book titled The New Depression in
early 2012. He said that due to excessive debt over the past several
decades to fuel domestic consumption, we have created bubble upon
bubble, and that bubble will eventually collapse in a depression that he
says will last for "generations" (HIS word, not mine).
I also
read some of the reviews of Mr. Duncan's book on Amazon.com. There were
two reviews that were extensive and were several pages long. You can
read them there if you want, but be forewarned that they were quite
lengthy! They were some of the most expansive reviews I've ever read on
Amazon. They must have taken hours to write. After reading them, I
decided that I didn't need to buy Duncan's book because I knew all the
salient points in them.
Two of the lengthier reviews critiqued
Duncan's proposed "solution" to our debt crisis. In the book, he
proposes that the US government borrow even MORE, go into even deeper
debt, and "invest" in advanced technologies in alternative energies,
nanotechnology, etc. He said that he believes that if the government
does this, it can ensure that the US "empire" will endure another
century. So his solution is even MORE government debt and government
programs in a bet that we can perpetuate our technology edge for the
next century. The lengthy reviews were skeptical, but fair.
Over
the past year, I've read at least five books that are dedicated, either
in whole or in part, to describing asset bubbles and their
characteristics. One of them was so arcane that I had to borrow it from
the BYU library, where it had only been checked out 3 previous times in
10 years. I've taken notes of some of the characteristics of what
constitutes bubbles. What we are seeing now in stocks manifests every
single characteristic of a bubble that I've read. Attached is a chart
that Dr. John Hussman published this week (the one with the white
background) . It shows the current stock market, and is literally a
textbook example of what an asset bubble looks like. In fact, in the
advanced stages of what he called a log-periodic Sornette-style bubble
(Swiss academic Didier Sornette was the author of the book I borrowed
from the BYU library, which I heard about from Hussman), the asset
bubble goes parabolic as investors not only increase their bets without
abandon, but they even go into DEBT to do it. Margin debt is now at
record levels, which Hussman also mentioned this week in his online
commentary on his website. Margin debt not only amplifies the gains on
the way up, but the losses to investors also amplify the speed of
decline on the way down. Crashes occur much faster than rallies for this
reason. Hussman reminds us that we have already seen TWO stock market
crashes in the past ten years (2003 and 2007-2008). But he also says
that stocks may increase an additional 5% before they crash again. That
would put the S&P 500 at about 1920. It's trading on my futures
charts at 1832 as I type this. We could reach 1920 over the next 90
days.
In Hussman's chart, note that as the asset bubble matures,
the asset goes increasingly parabolic -- straight up! There are no more
pull-backs or retracements whatsoever. Stocks, for example, have barely
looked back since mid-2012, since the fed began QE-Infinity! On his
chart, the red line is what a bubble historically looks like, and the
blue line is the current S&P 500. They are virtually identical!
On
my other chart that I've attached (black background), which is a screen
capture from my own (monthly) charts on my PC from one week ago (and
stocks have gone even higher since), you'll also see that stocks are no
longer even pulling back to the exponential moving average (light blue
line). They are even trading much of the time above the purple line,
which is the upper Bollinger Band, which represents two standard
deviations (a chance to use your statistics from biz school) outside the
norm. We're now close to THREE standard deviations!
I don't try
to forecast the future. I have a saying I made up: "Predicting the
future is for prophets, not profits". I don't know what the future
holds. I trade based upon what the charts and the market tell me, NOT
what prognosticators say. Prognosticators have a historically poor track
record! BUT -- I know a bubble when I see one. All it will take is
another "Lehman Bros moment" that triggers a sudden collapse in
confidence, and the next crash will ensue (John Mauldin wrote about this
extensively in his book Endgame). I have no idea what that trigger event
will be. But I am certain it will come. And the more euphoric Wall St
becomes, and the more they ignore the red flags, the more likely that
event will occur with immensely cataclysmic consequences.
One
small note: public sentiment (measured by "consumer confidence"
indicators), tends to mirror the stock market -- NOT vice versa! (see 2
Ne 28:21)
Interestingly, over the past few months, I've read
information from some of Pres. Obama's advisers that indicates that they
INTEND to bring "fiscal collapse" (their term, not mine) to the US
government. Remember "never let a crisis go to waste"? If you don't have
a crisis, you CREATE one! That reminds me of what the secret
combinations did in 3 Ne 7! I'll share with you those details next time
we have a chance to get together to chat.
The market just
opened, and I need to go. There is a new book out by John Mauldin,
called Code Red. I asked for the local library to get it so I can read
it. They said it will arrive after Jan 1st (new budget). Mauldin, after
being quite optimistic over the past few years, has suddenly turned
somewhat pessimistic over the course of 2013. I want to read his book to
learn why. His last book was about what he and others have termed "the
debt supercycle" which is coming to an end soon. Duncan also expressed
his worries about the same phenom. I use the term The Mother of All
Bubbles to refer to US government debt. When that bubble pops, we will
have a depression that Duncan says will likely last for DECADES, even
generations. That's his opinion! Wow!
One last thing and then I MUST go:
re: deflation
There
hasn't been broad-based deflation since the Fed was created. The dollar
has depreciated 98% since then. (By the way, the Fed's 100th
anniversary was Dec 23d -- the same day as Joseph Smith's birthday. One
was a great day in history, and the other was a day of infamy!) I'm
convinced that inflation is a better bet than deflation. We HAVE seen
some deflation, most notably in housing, but the deflation was from
BUBBLE levels. We all know that food and energy inflation are MORE
likely, not less. Notwithstanding the gas price deflation you mentioned,
the price of gas is still almost DOUBLE the price of gasoline when
Obama took office. For this time of year (there are seasonal aspects to
crude/gas prices), gas prices are unusually high.
Well, time to
go to work. Let's keep up the dialogue. I appreciate having someone with
your knowledge and background to palaver with.
Keep up the great work! I appreciate your example and ethic!
God bless!
Steve