Fox Business

My overriding theme and the central drama for the coming year is that unexpected events can take on greater importance as the Federal Reserve ends its near-decade-long Zero Interest Rate Policy. Consensus premises and forecasts will likely fall flat, in a rather spectacular manner. The low-conviction and directionless market that we saw in 2015 could become a no-conviction and very-much-directed market (i.e. one that's directed lower) in 2016. There will be no peace on earth in 2016, and our markets could lose a cushion of protection as valuations contract. (Just as "malinvestment" represented a key theme this year, we expect a compression of price-to-earnings ratios to serve as a big market driver in 2016.) In other words, we don't think 2016 will be fun.

Warren Buffett - billionaire investor, opposer of Citizens United but major donor to super-PACs, previous fan of Bernie Sanders, and vehement supporter of the 'fairness doctrine' on taxes for everyone but himself - will be joining 'campaigner for everyday Americans' Hillary Clinton as she stumps in Omaha this month. We are sure average joes and janes across America will feel relieved that two such 'feet on the ground, down to earth' people are representing their needs and hearing their fears.

While we are used to David Stockman's detailed and lengthy "nailing" of the real state of the world, the following brief clip of an interview with Fox Business, in which David explains how to 'fix' so many of our problems, can be summarized perfectly in just seven short words: "Replace The Fed with the free market."

"I don’t blame America. I am America, you are America. I don’t blame you. I blame bad policy. I blame the interventionists. I blame the neoconservatives who preach this stuff, who believe in it like a religion — that they have to promote American goodness even if you have to bomb and kill people. In short, I don’t blame America; I blame neocons."

The man who made a billion dollars on Black Monday sums up his strategy perfectly in this excellent FOX Business clip with the money-honey, "I'm a hedge fund manager that actually hedges for his clients. This is something of an old fashioned idea in this day of just gambling on the next Fed bailout." Spitznagel, who is wholly unapologetic in his criticism of The Fed (and any central planner), unleashes eight minutes of awful truthiness on what is going on under the surface of the so-called 'market', concluding ominously, "if August was scary for people, they ain't seen nothin’ yet."

Rickards said that gold is like “fire insurance on your house” ... “Nobody wants their house to burn down but if it does you are glad you have some insurance”. 

In yet another somewhat surreal twist in The Donald's path to The White House, Fox Business reports the long, sometimes contentious relationship between Donald Trump and Steve Wynn has taken another turn, with the Las Vegas casino magnate serving as an unofficial adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign. Having known each other for 30 years, Fox's Gasparino notes that they have clashed in the past (Wynn on Turmp in 1998 "He's a fool," and Trump on Wynn "he's a very strange guy.") but in recent years both have been critical of the leftward tilt of the Democratic Party and president Obama.

Yesterday, the FT triumphantly proclaimed: "Beijing abandons large-scale share purchases", and that instead of manipulating stocks directly as China did last week on Thursday and Friday, China would instead focus on punishing sellers, shorters, and various other entities. We snickered, especially after the Shanghai Composite opened down 2% and dropped as low as 4% overnight. Just a few hours later we found out that our cynical skepticism was again spot on: the moment the afternoon trading session opened, the "National Team's" favorite plunge protection trade, the SSE 50 index of biggest companies, went super-bid and ramped from a low of 2071 to close 140 points higher, ending trading with a last minute government-facilitated surge, and pushing the Composite just 0.8% lower after trading down as much as -4.0%.

...or else a rather blatant Fox News error may be about to start a revolution.

On Thursday this past week there were a few attempts at crisis management that should go into textbooks (as well as history books) everywhere in years to come as: Crisis Management 101.a – Lessons in Ineptitude. The responses as to settle the angst in an ever-more-skeptical, as well as frightened investing class was not only inane as demonstrated by the responses (or better yet; lack there of) given at the NYSE by way of “answering” as to why it halted its operation for nearly 4 hours. Was only outdone by what many view as the near insane when one views the steps taken in China to “calm” their markets. Is that how one instills confidence? It instills something – however the term isn’t anything resembling “confidence.”

Eurocrats have spent untold billions of other people’s money to save face, just so they wouldn’t have to admit that Project “Make Everyone Germany” has failed. But what they never acknowledged was that no matter how much they extend and pretend, the disease will always reach its crisis. And this financial disease is going to slay the patient. History is very clear on this point: debt kills.

As we await the final capitulation by the ECB, EU and IMF to provide Greece another bailout (or not), we have assembled a list of reading for you that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Greece.

"You're cruisin' for a bruisin'." - Kenickie, Quote From "Grease"

"CNBC is an electronic shaman for investors... The situation resembles George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the protagonist Winston Smith tuned out the massive telescreen on his apartment wall that issued endless streams of positive news."

"This market has a lot to be concerned about," warns Carl Icahn in an interview with FOX Business Network's Trish Regan, slamming Fed policy, "by keeping interest rates this low you are creating bubbles that you don’t even know about." While mainstream media pundits are instantly feverish over every bullish AAPL word the aging activist has to say (or tweet), it seems that when it comes to facing facts and reality of the broad market, few, if any, are willing to share his thoughts as he concludes, "it’s not just a question of it could be the beginning... It’s not will it happen. It’s when it will happen."