Dennis, Our favorite reporter strikes again. Gretchen has been very kind to SI thinkers, especially Earlie. She also published the story about some SI members catching Micron Tech fudging numbers and the fact that none of the Wall Street analysts caught it. Most telling was when one analyst, who will go unnamed, NILES, NILES, NILES issued a buy report on MU and mentioned that he hadn't read the 10Q, as the amateurs from SI had. <g>
A potential crash in the credit markets is certainly something I've been concerned about for years. I disagree with nothing she said other than why it should happen now when the conditions were just as rotten earlier.
The deterioration in corporate credit quality has long been whined about by yours truly. Try finding a AAA or AA bond any more. It has been to the advantage of corps to take down debt to artificially boost earnings, thus artificially making suckers buy their stocks. Bill Fleckenstein has written for quite awhile about balance sheet slippage, as has Fred Hickey.
So, I think Gretchen is right on on seeing one factor that will kill the economy and the market. The only question is when, and my answer has been quite a while ago. <g> I still think faking numbers and piling up debt while making little real capital investment do not a great economy make.
Welcome from the ranks of the lurkers. Now you, too, will have a bullseye on your back for all the brain dead bulls to use for target practice. VBG |
