Juggling Dynamite

A lucid market overview in this 38-minute presentation.  It’s hard for words alone to capture the lunacy now afoot, long-term charts offer some perspective.

Here is a direct video link.

Daily walks are a highlight in the COVID lockdown and, like many, I’ve been taking the opportunity to step offline and out for some air.

Yesterday, two different neighbours at different points stopped to ask me about the stock market from the other side of the street.  One walking her dog yelled,  “Are you buying Air Canada shares? Everyone I know seems to be.”  Another waved ”  A bunch of my friends are trading shares on their iPads these days. What do you think?”

A third pointed out homes that had recently sold tens of thousands over their asking price in a matter of days, “Great for us”, he said, “who knows how the young folks will get started.”

The net was a disturbing sense of deja vu reminiscent of similar unsolicited interactions in 2000 and 2007.  Then, as now, regular folks were focused on stock trading.  I still recall our children’s piano teacher urging his favourite mining picks on us in the spring of 2008.

At least then, Canadian home prices had been flat for about 15 years (following a market bust in 1989), and households were not highly levered.

Unfortunately, there’s no such comfort now.

Worthwhile discussion on the fantasy of central bank powers and the destructive behaviours they have inspired.

In this interview, Danielle discusses the evolution of the Fed through that period and how the policies developed and implemented then have played a role in everything from inequality and social unrest to asset bubbles and inflation. She also lays out several of the potential outcomes facing investors and citizens alike as the result of the fiscal dominance and monetization of the debt we are seeing today.

Here is a direct audio link.

Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom · #38: Danielle DiMartino Booth On The Future Of The Federal Reserve