29 September 2020

Dumb and Dumber - part the second

Today we find Bret Stephens ploughing the olde sod of the Secret Trump Voter. 'Cris' is one he cites, a woman whose 401(K), she says, has gone up substantially under ex-President AuH2O 2020

Those who bring in more than they can spend, almost always turn to assets as the place to place such excess funds. They always have. As the econ types say, "money is fully fungible" and "all placements of money are determined by opportunity cost". To the extent that the Movers and Shakers of finance take the Fed's index interest rate seriously (and, by and large, they do), other interest rates, public and private, follow the trend if not the exact value; risk arbitrage and all that. If those excess funds are in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per household, in aggregate they make for a tsunami of moolah. Where it goes determines the public price of the widgets. If those widgets are merely electronic representations of paper stocks and bonds, well those 'virtual' prices bubble up. 

It would be better if pundits like Stephens didn't allow such numbskulls to spout off such stupidity with impunity. Batshit J. Moron has done nothing to boost anyone's 401(K) or any other asset class. The cause has been Jerome Powell, and before him Obama, Bernanke, and Yellen. Obama, by pushing for fiscal policy, and the other Fed Chaircritters for cratering index interest rates. The Fed's instance on a near zero rate through 2023 pretty much guarantees Mr. Market will stay nicely fat for some time. It's an easy choice: government fiduciaries at near 0, or take a ride with Mr. Market. It's a no brainer, and Mr. Market keeps getting fat. Dear Leader Yo! Semite of Thigh Land had nothing to do with it. Well, except to may be browbeat Powell into continuing with near 0 index rate. Could it be that ex-President AuH2O 2020 sees a nicely lower re-fi of the 421 million dollar deep sea anchor he's built for himself? Daddy's dead and gone and can't bail him out yet again. 

 So, while 'Cris' is proud to be a lesbian, which is fine by me (I don't care one way or another, of course), she's also as dumb as a sack of hair. The archetypical Trumpster. God help us.

No comments: