They believe their own public relations...
"There's a mark born every minute and one to trim 'em [rip off] and one to knock 'em [warn away]." Mark Twain
You can't question their belief in themselves and their ability to convince their public and each other, that they are the greatest and there should be no doubt in the stock market, that the purveyors of Wall Street regard themselves with. Their opportunistic manipulative optimism when there are significant problems on Main Street and across the real America is a testament to their removal from reality and is simultaneously surreal and magnificent.
When have you ever known the common broker to tell you to sell? Before the 1962 wild crash? 1973? 1987? 1989 mini crash? 2000? 2001? 2007? 2009? 2010 flash crash? It is in their interest to keep the stock market aloft no matter what, regardless of underlying fundamentals, economic conditions outside of the market and common sense. In a perverse way, you have to admire their capacity to convince themselves and whoever is buying stocks right now, yet one more time, that stocks always go up and never go down. As it stands now they are all looking up, huffing and puffing and blowing, to keep a bubble afloat.
Anyone interested in buying some municipal bonds?
I can remember almost nothing but when I think of stock analysts, brokers, CEOs on conference calls to Wall Street "experts", etc., I always remember two things:
ReplyDelete1) The churning of accounts
2) Pump and Dump
I'm sure there are a lot of other great things to remember but for me those two put the level of trust I should have for "investment professionals" in razor-sharp focus.
I wish everyone who even considered investing in the markets (not just now, but ever) would spend as much time as I did reading a ton of things. They might forget a lot, but one or two things remembered can make a difference.
And I don't come at this from a particularly conservative perspective. I just think that right now, with the stimulus and the media and whatever the mutual funds are saying (and they move things, so their words are important) that there is no reason to think things are strong in anything but a very short term way. I think I'm an optimist, but I see good numbers and shake my head and ask, "why?"
I admire almost nothing about these creeps. I DO admire the hard-working 16-year-olds who will soon keep these besuited BS artists away from the good hours at the fry cooker, though. And I know that's a dream, but I hope it comes true very soon.
Great post, JR!
What is going on now reminds me of the late nineties during the tech-telecom bubble when analysts would get on CNBC and feverishly talk about the "THE DOW COULD REACH 50,000 BY NEXT WEEK" (an exaggeration of course but close). I can't listen to the dumb jargon of conference calls anymore that talk around any statement or question. Brokers are also another story.
ReplyDeleteYou're dead on I think about "there is no reason to think things are strong in anything but a very short term way." I'm a positive thinker but I also believe in factual information and I have no reason to trust the numbers out there versus what I experience and see first hand in real life. I think we're in for a long road of recovery ahead in the financial world but that doesn't mean America isn't full of hard workers and we won't pull out of it in the long term.
The term I believe you're looking for is the vernacular "Street Creeps."
Great comment Mike, thanks!