Frank, re: Any comments
<1. Constant fear by investors and institutions of persistence on rising interest rates. Mr.Greenspan is hell bent on raising interest rates to slow down spending and reduce the wealth affect. People spend less when they see that their stock portfolios are dwindling.>
There have been some reports that indicate accelerating inflation is a serious threat. I think the jury is still out, the Fed doesn't have the luxury of waiting to see. In the next 30 to 90 days the evidence should be much better. But if you think rising interest rates are bad for equity values, you should live through times of high inflation.
<2. Fear that any large corporations may be the next target of antitrust investigations.>
I don't think this is a serious concern of individual investors or institutional investors.
<3. Mistrust of the present Administration>
I assume you are talking about the administration that has been in office for most of the recent great bull market? And they just decided to "mistrust" them in March of this year?
<4. Lack of SEC investigations at market manipulators and major publications who print one sided versions of stories which can have a major impact on market volatility. Many bets and hedges are made before the stories are released and while these scoundrels profits at their racketeering scams the rest of us are sitting ducks. BTW I am going to stop using Barrons for toilet paper since it is giving me a skin rash and may begin using Barrons for wrapping fish.>
To my mind, Arthur Levitt has been the most retail investor friendly chairman of the SEC ever. He is working on unpopular (with the major broker houses) new rules on selective disclosure, he has a good record of enforcement in a revolutionary period of change in the markets. He can't control the freedom of anyone to express their opinion on an equity, in a magazine or on SI. I don't think you want him to.
IMHO, the tech stocks are coming down because they went up too far and too fast from October 1999 until March 2000. They are back in the range that previous growth and trend in the stocks should support. Will it overshoot to the downside, probably, maybe it already has.
It's easy to blame Greenspan, Janet Reno, the Clinton administration and Barrons for this bear market. The truth is the markets are irrational on the upside and the downside, and you just hope the mean trend is your friend.
John
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