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Co-brand
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Contributed by Bill
Bonner
Publisher of: The
Fleet Street Letter |
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PARIS, FRANCE
THURSDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2001 |
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Today:
Reversion
to the Mean
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*** Rally halted...no hat trick on Wall Street
*** Is the age of irony over?
*** Profits collapse...stocks go down...CMGI a penny
share..."Buy Gold!"...and more...
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We've been following the great "river of no
returns" stock, Amazon.com...all the way down.
Yesterday, it lost another 10% - closing at $6.35. CMGI,
which once traded at $162, became a penny stock, trading
as low as 98 cents yesterday.
These stocks once represented the golden future of
American capitalism and modern information technology.
They were supposed to go up, not down. Meanwhile, gold
shares - which were supposed to go nowhere - are up 73%
so far this year.
("Buy the gold shares," said Harry Schultz, as we
enjoyed the sun at the Paradis Caf� a couple of days
ago. "They've already gone up a lot, but they have a lot
farther to go.")
But irony is underappreciated these days. "The Age
of Irony Comes to an End," declares Roger Rosenblatt
sourly in Time magazine.
To save you some time, I read his piece. Now I
have doubts that he even knows what irony is. "The
ironicists, seeing through everything, made it difficult
for anyone to see anything." Rosenblatt goes on to
complain that Ironicists even made fun of such heartfelt
expressions as "I feel your pain".
To Rosenblatt, irony suggests that "nothing is
real." Now he says that irony is dead because the nation
knows that some things ARE real: real pain, real
anger...and, of course, the real greatness of the
country.
Okay, Roger, let me ask you: was the productivity
miracle real? The "new era", the social security "lock
box", the never-ending economic expansion? What about
the ever-rising stock market or the federal surplus?
Ironically, life is still full of lies, myths,
hypocrisies, wishful thinking and twists. About which,
more below...
Eric...what's happening over your way?
*****
Eric Fry in New York:
- A stock market "hat-trick" was not to be. Stocks could
muster no better than two consecutive days in the plus
column before fading yesterday. The Dow dropped 92
points to 8,567, while the Nasdaq lost 2.5%, to 1,464.
- Adam Lass and Bryan Botterelli, our colleagues at the
Options Underground, nailed this one on the head
(again!). Tuesday morning, they urged their subscribers
to buy puts on the Nasdaq 100 Index (betting that the
market would fall). One day into the trade, things look
pretty darn good. The Nasdaq 100 has dropped about 3%
since midday Tuesday. (see:
Options Underground
http://www.indxtrader.com/your_wealth
- Last week, Wall Street analysts made 3,390 changes to
their revenue or profit forecasts for specific stocks,
according to Thomson Financial/First Call. An unsettling
84% of those forecasts were revised down. Brokerage
stocks typify the trend: Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and
Lehman Brothers all posted quarterly declines in net
income yesterday...Goldman's profits fell 43%, Bear
Stearns' slid 26%, and Lehman Brothers' dropped 32%.
- Bad news for the stock market was good news for gold.
The monetary relic mounted another of its stealth
rallies - rising $3.50 to over $393 per ounce.
- Immediately after the World Trade Center attack, gold
rallied about $15. But the advance quickly reversed as
many dispirited, would-be gold bulls threw in the towel.
Since then, gold has been tiptoeing higher. And now,
more than two weeks after the attack, spot gold has
managed to climb to its highest closing price in more
than one year.
- Ironically, investment demand for gold coins appears
to be the driving force behind the move. Greg Weldon of
Weldon's Money Monitor reports that retail demand for
gold coins is "through the roof." Mike Tordella, a
wholesaler of precious metals, bars, and coins tells
Weldon that his sales volumes are up 500% over last
month.
- "We are getting calls from financial planners who are
looking for half-a-million or even one million dollars
worth of gold for their clients," says Tordella. "That
represents a small portion of an individual portfolio,
but it is a lot more than what people had been
considering previously."
- "The Mint was caught unprepared for the run on coins,
having maintained minimal inventories due to lack of
demand," says Frank McGhee, a coin dealer at Alliance
Financial in Chicago. This new demand "has created
problems with getting enough planchets (blanks) for the
making of bullion coins."
- Something less extreme than impending Armageddon may
be whetting the appetites of all these gold buyers. Like
plain vanilla inflation, for example. The recent sell
off in the 30-year Treasury bond seems to suggest as
much.
- "Fed easings have been unusually aggressive
(inflationary?)," observes the ISI Group. "The attack
has opened the door to wartime government spending
(inflationary?). The dollar could decline persistently
as foreign investors unwind unprecedentedly [large] long
positions in U.S. stocks and bonds." These trends may
all add up to rising inflation...at least, as ISI sees
it.
- Still, the price of oil dropped again yesterday.
"Crude prices have declined 25% in the past week,"
writes John Myers of Outstanding Investments, "and is
now hovering around two year lows. One reason? Demand
for jet fuel is dropping dramatically as airlines cut
back on their traffic by as much as 25%. The industry
accounts for as much as 1.8 million barrels a day of jet
fuel - almost 10% of the U.S. oil consumption. War, of
course, could make the price turn around in a hurry."
- John, by the way, is having his own string of luck
with The Resource Trader Alert. He recently added 145%
to his readers' portfolios with this interesting twist
on the surge in demand for gold: a "call" on the Swiss
franc (betting the market would go up). This currency,
seen by many as a safety play in times of strife, is
largely backed by gold reserves. {see: Resource Trader Alert)
- Life in lower Manhattan, while far from normal, is at
least moving in that direction. Yesterday's spectacular
fall weather seemed to put a shine on everything.
*****
Back in Paris...
*** I stopped in at the famous auction house Drouot
yesterday. If you want to buy antiques, this is a good
place to go - it's the wholesale market, where Paris
antique dealers get their inventory.
*** At an auction of modern art...I felt as though I was
glimpsing the future.
*** Two men in suits held up a large tableau covered in
brown paint with purple figures. It looked as though it
might have been done by a 5th grade art class in a bad
neighborhood.
*** "We will begin the bidding at 5,000 francs," said
the auctioneer.
Silence.
*** "Well, let us reduce the opening bid to 4,000
francs..."
Silence.
*** "Two thousand francs. Do I hear 2,000 francs...?"
No one spoke.
*** "Okay...1,000...?"
*** "500 francs...? Does anyone in this room want to bid
on this painting?"
Dead silence.
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REVERSION TO THE MEAN, Part One
by Bill Bonner
"Patriotism...is the last refuge of scoundrels. It also
occasionally can be the first resort of shills, not
excluding those peddling stocks."
Alan Abelson
Barron's
Widely reported is the idea that Islam abhors violence
and the Koran specifically forbids suicide missions.
But great religions all have one thing in common. They
lay on such a light yoke that their adherents can run
off in almost any fool direction they want to.
How else can you explain so many mullahs and Muslim
clerics throughout the Middle East who seem to support
bin Laden and other terrorists?
And is it not at least ironic that in a nation of more
than 200 million Christians, hardly a single voice
suggests turning the other cheek to terrorists? There it
is, about as unambiguously stated as anything Jesus ever
said:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth...But I say unto you, That
ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on
thy rich cheek, turn to him the other also."
As I have explained, the Daily Reckoning is a free
service. But if I had the same views as Time magazine,
what would be the point of reading? (Not that I am
advocating turning the other cheek to murderers. It is
just that an unnoticed irony is a dangerous irony.)
The entire American press agrees: the nation has been
rocked by a tragic and catastrophic attack, but it seems
to have brought out the best in America. Americans are
united as never before and prouder than ever...of
themselves.
But here at the Daily Reckoning, we are a bit
disappointed in our fellow Americans. Just when they
seemed to be coming to their senses, after a long spell
of overconfidence...they seem to have slipped into even
greater fantasy.
The ordinary man seems to have suddenly taken up a vast
and unhealthy interest in military affairs and politics,
just as he was beginning to recover from his interest in
stocks. And now he can scarcely tell the difference.
"If you believe in our great country - that we will
survive and prosper - then spend a little money," urges
Louis Navellier. "Buy that new sofa. Go out to dinner.
Take a weekend getaway. It'll do your psyche good and
help grease the wheels of recovery, as well. AND ONCE
YOU'VE spent a little cash on yourself and your family,
invest a little in America, too. The stock market
represents our future - a bright future, I believe.
But don't invest just to be patriotic. Invest the right
way now - with great companies selling at flea market
prices..."
History will some day record that following the
terrorists' strike in September of 2001, God, Mammon,
and the State curled up so tightly together in
Americans' minds that separating them was like trying to
pull apart mating snakes. The nation's blood is up. Now
is the time to act. To speak out. We will have plenty of
time for regrets later.
"Wake Up, America!" comes the clarion call from Ben
Stein in Barron's. The terrorists' attack gave us a
wake-up call just like Pearl Harbor, Stein believes.
How did America's Greatest Generation react? "We didn't
worry a lot about hurting anyone's feelings. We bombed
their cities from the air...we won and saved the whole
future of mankind."
Bombing cities is a popular theme. "Bomb them all," said
one New Yorker, as I reported yesterday, "Let God sort
them out."
"Strike hard and fast," adds Stein.
This sentiment has already triggered streams of refugees
pouring out of Kabul. Residents of Delray Beach, Florida
are said to be packing up too.
If Simon de Montfort had had bombers, he would have used
them to crush the Cathar heresy in 1208. Cathars lived
in towns in the southwest of France...where they
practiced their form of "pure" Christianity. They
believed that work was good but that all matter was
evil. Why were they considered such a threat? Eight
hundred years later, it is hard to imagine. Perhaps it
was because they did not eat meat; vegetarianism has
always been regarded with alarm in France.
Blessed by the Pope, and joined by men in search of
paradise in heaven or confiscated lands on earth, Simon
de Montfort led a campaign against the heretics.
St. Dominic despaired of trying to talk sense into them.
"I have preached, I have entreated, I have wept...the
rod must now do the work of benediction."
In the ensuring campaign whole towns were wiped out -
with every man, woman, and child put to the sword...many
tortured before finally being put to death. A favorite
means of killing heretics was to burn them alive at the
stake..."with a small, slow fire", the chroniclers
report. Those who escaped ran and hid in the forests.
There, they starved...other towns were forbidden to give
them food or shelter, under penalty of death.
How could de Montfort tell the difference between
heretics and the honest Catholics who lived in the same
towns? He was as ignorant of an individual's guilt or
innocence as a smart bomb. So he killed them all. "Slay
them all," was his instruction (attributed to Papal
Legate Arnaud Amaury). "God will recognize his own."
The ruthlessness paid off. Scarcely a hundred years
later, the last known Cathar, Guillaume Belibaste, was
burnt alive, and - in the eyes of the church - the
future of mankind was saved.
For Stein too, the time for modesty and cautious
thinking is over. "Back to reality..." he says.
"Reversion to the mean is a law, not a choice."
Long suffering Daily Reckoning readers will recall too
that "reversion to the mean" is a law that rarely goes
unenforced for long. A bear market had already begun on
Wall Street before the terrorists finished flight
school. Stocks were already reverting to the mean and so
was the U.S. economy. Those trends still have a long way
to go.
But your editor wonders whether there isn't an even
bigger bubble waiting for deflation...and whether, in
some ironic way, a bear market in confidence might cost
the nation even more than its bear market in stocks.
More tomorrow...
Bill Bonner
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| About
The Daily Reckoning: |
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Daily Reckoning
author Bill Bonner
Bill Bonner is,
in spite of himself, a natural born contrarian. Early each morning, Bill
writes The Daily
Reckoning—his take on the financial markets and what’s going
on in the world—and sends it off by e-mail before most Americans’
alarm clocks have buzzed. Many readers say it's the first thing they want
to read when they get up—not only because it's informative and thought
provoking, but also it's inspiring, in its own quirky and provocative way.
Of course, there's
much more to Bill than his daily market commentary. He's also the founder
and president of Agora Publishing, one of the world's most successful
consumer newsletter publishing companies. Bill's passion for international
travel and big ideas are reflected in the company he's successfully built.
In 1979, he began publishing International Living and Hulbert's
Financial Digest . Since then, the company has grown to include
dozens of newsletters focusing on health, travel, and finance. Bill has
vigorously expanded from Agora's home base in Baltimore, Maryland since
the early ’90s—opening offices in Florida, London, Paris, Ireland, and
Germany.
Agora's publication
subsidiaries include Pickering
& Chatto, a prestigious academic press in London and Les
Belles Lettres in Paris, best known as a publisher of classical
literature in bilingual editions.
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