“It’s like there’s a bunch of guys that are making it up as they go along… They talk about transparency and what they present is opacity, programs that don’t make sense, or are not yet fully laid out. This only increases the already high level of uncertainty and anxiety.”
-Anna Schwartz (co-author with Milton Friedman of “A Monetary History of the United States”)

For those of you who read Barron’s on the weekend, you’ll recall that quote from the 93 year old Anna Schwarz take on the US Treasury’s performance to date. She doesn’t carry a crackberry. She doesn’t hang with the “hedgies.” She reads, and thinks…

That cover of Barron’s was titled “More Pain” (with a bear taking a chainsaw to a bull’s head), and the #1 headline on Bloomberg this morning reads “Stocks plunge worldwide, US futures drop.” Suffice to say we are going to have ourselves a good old fashioned accountability check in the coming months. At least I don’t have to sound like I have an axe to grind anymore. People are figuring this all out… who did what and when… Facts are stubborn little critters aren’t they?

If you flip through Barron’s quickly, you won’t miss the full page inserts from Barclays and Merrill Lynch that read “Tax-Loss Harvesting” and “Support – Merrill really delivers on that promise.” Really? Do they “really” deliver? That’s a fascinating interpretation of their performance in 2008. That’s about as believable as John McCain sounds when he plays the theme song of Rocky and tells the 100 or so people at a rally in Ohio that he has Obama “right where he wants him”… or better yet, the Morgan Stanley advertising insert (Barron’s, 10/27/08, page 14) calling themselves “World Wise!”

After missing that this global economy is cyclical and that leverage can work both ways, I don’t need to ‘YouTube’ these firms and voices anymore. Like any man or woman who is guilty, they’ll show it off to you themselves – just give them and the lawyers time. Much to the chagrin of “Investment Banking Inc’s” conflicted and compromised business models of Christmas bonuses past, this truth will be told now. As Martin Luther King said, “a lie cannot live.” All of those finger pointers will be mailed mirrors. We might even order up some baby blue Tiffany bows for them, just to remind them of how good all that money smelled.

Global stock markets smell again this morning, badly – just how I like them. This week we will have both “Heli-Ben” cutting rates and month end performance marks for everyone who is still in this game. Winners and losers are emerging. The losers will tell everyone that it’s not their fault, “it’s the market”. That’s how the accountability rules on this Street used to work, so don’t expect anything less come Friday. I’m not sure how the math worked last year at October end, with the S&P 500 44% higher. I don’t recall PM’s sending incentive fees back to their investors with a note admitting that “it’s the market.” But heh, who’s keeping track of history…

Asian markets are marking some of the most expeditious declines in world history. Overnight, Hong Kong closed down the most since the Tiananmen Square crisis, losing -12.7% in one fell swoop. Philippino stocks lost -12.3%, and stocks in Thailand got tagged for another -10.5% loss. South Korean stocks actually closed up 0.82%, and that’s largely because the government cut interest rates by 75 basis points to 4.25%. Greenspan taught the world how to react to manias, just cut rates and never mind the leverage bubbles that will be born out of the process. By the time that occurs, everyone can throw up their hands and say “we’re shocked”…

The Shanghai Composite Index and the Hang Sang Index have lost -72% and -65%, respectively, since this same week of last year. The only thing that’s “shocking” about this is what you’ll find on the ‘You Tube’ rewinds from whoever it is you’d like to Google this morning. What did they say, and when? As appropriately, the question you should be asking yourself this morning is what are they doing now in anticipation of October 2009? Our answer is quite simple, buying stocks. We buy things in 3’s here at Research Edge. If we see our prices in FXI (China) or EWH (Hong Kong) this morning, we’ll be buying them, for the 3rd time. Importantly, we just started buying into these macro ideas in October of 2008. We were short them at this time last year.

Our ‘Hedgeye Asset Allocation’ model has the following exposures this morning: US Cash 75%, Canadian Cash 3%, Gold 3%, and Global Equities 19%. The US side of our equity exposure is only 6%, and we have expressed that with more of our “cash is king” theme, buying the Vanguard High Dividend Yield Fund (VYM). Otherwise, we bought Australia (EWA) on Friday, adding it to our equity ETF exposure in Germany (EWG), China (FXI), and Hong Kong (EWH). This puts us in a tactically sound position to be buying into any US market weakness as PM’s mark down positions into what was nothing short of a horrifying month for those who weren’t in cash.

For the month alone, the S&P 500 is down 24.8% to date. For 2008 to date, it’s down -40.3%, and since the October 2007 “it’s global this time” high of 1562, the S&P500 has lost 44% of its value. To borrow Morgan Stanley’s “World Wise” tag line, it pays to respect history and context here. The only worse peak to trough decline in the US market was during the Great Depression. If you or whoever is managing your money cannot find value here, I don’t think you or they ever will.

We have an S&P 500 downside target buy zone of 857.76 today. As the math changes, we will. If you ever want to be a capitalist, now would be a great time to start. Be your own process. Beat your own path. In a year from now, I’ll be reminding you of this note. I am Keith McCullough, and I support this message.

Best of luck out there this week,
KM