Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Recipe for a Bubble

I used to hate Bubble and Squeak when it was served at my oh-so-mediocre high school cafeteria (both were mediocre in case you were wondering - the school and the cafeteria). The joke then was that inside the Bubble and Squeak was baked a mouse - hence the 'squeak' part.
Today's bubbles - the stock and commodities markets - may be showing signs of a squeak but the media (school lunch ladies)and the Fed (the school principal) are serving up the bubble regardless. Yesterday's lovely surprise squeaker was Meredith Whitney who told a stunned Maria Bartiromo on CNBC that she hadn't been so bearish in a year, then predicted a 'double dip' recession (see my blog dated 05/08/09). The CNBC talking heads spent an hour disputing Meredith and spouting spurious crap to support their uneducated (and unasked for) opinions. Then Fed chairman Ben Bernanke reassured the world that this was no bubble, duly followed by Donald Kohn (vice chairman)and Janet Yellen (San Francisco Fed). The words 'protesting' and 'too much' spring to mind. UBS' head of floor ops Art Cashin popped up on CNBC this morning and said something similar. CNBC might have to jump off of its perma-bull and smell the manure soon.

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