I got a call from Bill last Saturday. He was somewhat agitated and wanted to know if I had seen what happened on Wall Street. I had to admit that I hadn't as I was driving down a narrow strip of land between the ocean and river in Daytona Beach. Bill advised me to stay on the beach and not ruin my day.
My post for Sunday had already been written several days earlier and scheduled for publishing before Bill called. I know he has been following the market for quite awhile, so last week should have been no surprise. The market had been speaking for 9 months.
The market doesn't take political positions. The market doesn't pay attention to false optimism or false alarm. The market simply acknowledges what is and what millions of people are saying with their money... and have been saying for awhile.This is an election year so the party of the presidency [Republicans] downplay economic problems while the party seeking the presidency [Democrats] emphasize economic problems. After all, it is the fault of the President for all economic problems and it is the credit of the Congress for identifying those problems and recommending obvious solutions [such as raising taxes].
My advise to Bill is listen to his own brain rather than what the headlines say. The market is down. It's been down before. It may decline more. Excesses will be purged. Problems will be solved. False problems will be exposed. The economy will strengthen. The market will take the first hint of improvement and start rising again... when the time is right. We've been through this before.
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