“What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good.”

-Melvin Udall

In 1997, Jack Nicholson won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of an obsessive-compulsive Melvin Udall in “As Good As It Gets.” Particularly for anyone who has ever lived and worked in New York City, this movie really resonated. It was human.

As the Street makes its final push into year-end bonuses, this Melvin quote may not speak as loudly to some of us, but it’s ringing loud and clear across America. How else could the US stock market have its best September in 71 years and US Consumer Confidence readings go DOWN month-over-month? While Americans may not know what “QE” means, they’re pretty sure they should be pissed about it…

Let’s set aside the Manic Media begging Bernanke for more of what he himself has no idea will perpetuate and consider 3 intended consequences that make this so hard for common sense people to accept:

  1. Debauchery of America’s currency.
  2. Record low rates of return on savings accounts.
  3. Economic stagflation.

Now now, don’t get all in a heat here if you are in the perma-deflation camp. At lower prices, we’ll be right there with you. For now prices are inflating. Last week saw gold hit another record high. Oil and copper prices were up another +6.7% and +2.2% week-over-week, respectively.

Consequence #3 is a direct function of the US Federal Reserve being willfully blind to points #1 and #2.

What makes this so hard is the truth.

The truth is that Americans don’t have to buy into Officialdom’s portrayal of the truth. In “A Few Good Men”, Nicholson’s character tried pulling rank by suggesting “you can’t handle the truth!” Sometimes the “authorities” on critical American matters are wrong about the definition of truth.

Americans know the truth. Americans don’t like being lied to. The truth is marked-to-market on their desktop and in their bank accounts every single minute of the day.

For the 1st week in the last 5, the SP500 was down last week. It was barely down, but the point is that it was down. My submission on why is very straightforward. The Burning Buck starts to morph into a very bad thing, turning reflation into inflation, at a price.

Now slowing US economic growth + accelerating inflation growth = economic stagflation for those countries who have a higher nominal rate of inflation than they do economic growth. For countries that have to implement austerity measures, this problem will compound itself by real-wage growth starting to go negative year-over-year. The only thing worse than not having a job is getting a pay cut.

Back to a real-time update on the intended consequences of Bernanke’s plan:

  1. US Dollar = down another -1.64% last week; down for the 15th week out of the last 18; and down -11.8% since June!
  2. US Treasury Yields = down another -6.8% last week to 0.41% 2-yr yields; and down again this morning to a record low 0.40%

Again, that’s just the truth. And the truth is that a country has never devalued its way to prosperity. Sure, in the short term, inflation makes this good for some of us. But, in the long run, some of us need to remember that it’s the rest of us that matter most.

My immediate term support and resistance lines for the SP500 are now 1141 and 1155, respectively. I currently have a 52% position in Cash in the Asset Allocation Model (down from 55% on Friday as I added a 3% position in corn). In the Hedgeye Portfolio, I’ve moved to 13 long positions and 11 shorts.

Best of luck out there this week,

KM

Keith R. McCullough
Chief Executive Officer

What Makes It So Hard - 2yryield