Bill Gross Is An Idiot

Really.

He pontificates in today's NYT Magazine interview.

So what's the average person supposed to do? Save more. An investor could also take on more risk. I wouldn't recommend that, but that is something investors are doing, which suggests there's a bubble.

This from an avowed guru. The Dot Bomb happened because the Giant Pool of Money had already appeared, but unnoticed; a time of fiduciary investing (software involves nearly no physical capital and still doesn't, and thus has the pros in thrall). Coming out of the Dot Bomb, The Masters of The World still couldn't find ways to invest in real assets (plant and equipment) to generate real value and earn real interest. So they looked around for some other form of low risk (preferably risk free) instruments. They went after US residential housing, historically without risk enough to notice.

As Your Good Mother said, "what would the world be like if everybody behaved like you?" What happened was predicted, but not by the pros, since their incomes depended on continuing the merry go-round. People like Bill Gross.

Remember all that spewing: "The Damn Gummint drives out private investment"? Now, the likes of Gross want the Damn Gummint to pay them 10% for their idle moolah for nothing. Talk about perverse! There are multiple $$$ trillions sitting around idle on balance sheets and sequestered overseas in corporations alone. One might ask why The Masters of The World aren't creating new capacity to a faretheewell? Of course, there's still no increase in demand, since median income still sits in the toilet. The 1%/.1%/.01% continue to accumulate moolah, leaving yet more of it idle. The likes of Gross want a Terminal Depression, since the resulting price deflation turns into 10% or 20% increase in wealth, all for doing nothing but continuing to stuff mattresses.

The fact remains: only real investment generates real value and real earnings, thus the real interest rate. Demanding that the Damn Gummint pay higher than The Masters of The World can generate organically (i.e., not including M&A, buybacks, etc.) is evil. For some time, They haven't been smart enough to do that. Bill Gross is just Gross.

While I haven't a cite, it's clear that Bernanke figured out that The Masters of The World's refusal to make real investment was the underlying problem. QE tried to push the string by removing the spiked punch bowl. Hopefully, Yellen won't capitulate.