Friday, September 21, 2012

TOWER OF BABBLE



http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

"If the Fed wanted to "save" housing and not the banks, why not buy mortgages directly from homeowners?"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tower of babble. Sounds like a good name for a blog, like yours.

Although the memory of Lehman Brothers’ 2008 collapse may be fading on Wall Street, the shock still lingers on Main Street—and may again be hurting ordinary investors. A new survey of individual investors is a reminder of just how much we are primal creatures that remember the pain of loss more than the joy of gains.

As my colleague Roben Farzad recently reminded us, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is on a tear, rallying on rising corporate profits (including Apple’s (AAPL) earnings bonanza) and optimism about further help from the Federal Reserve. Since its nadir in March 2009, the S&P 500 has more than doubled and is now at 1,463, not that far from the all-time high of 1,526 it reached in September 2007.

But ask Main Street investors, and you find that the market isn’t all roses: Memories of the steep losses from 2008 and 2009 still haunt, causing them to underestimate the market’s performance.

Franklin Templeton (BEN) surveys individual investors annually, asking how they perceive the market’s performance in the previous year. In 2010, 66 percent of investors said the S&P had fallen in 2009, when it actually had gained 26.5 percent—in a year following a steep 37 percent plunge. In 2011, 48 percent of investors said the markets were down over the course of 2010, when the S&P had risen more than 15 percent. And data just released on Sept. 18 shows that 53 percent of investors think the S&P declined in 2011, when the index actually rose 2 percent.

It’s fair to wonder if investors who don’t know whether the S&P made or lost money the prior year are sufficiently attuned to the market to risk cash in it. However, Franklin Templeton’s survey is also a marketing exercise—the company is a major mutual fund seller that would like to help guide you into investing.

The S&P has gained more than 16 percent so far this year, but that’s no reason to to think investors have suddenly overcome their post-crash trauma. They have continued pulling out of equities, taking more than $66 billion (XLS) out of the U.S. stock market in 2012.

This fear of getting burned again—“loss aversion,” in financial psychology lingo—means that Main Street is being hit by a double whammy. Not only did individual investors take a beating when the market tanked, they’re not benefiting from its rebound, either.


Jack B

Marc R said...

You are an asshole, why even bother with a little blog like mine. I guarantee you crawled back under your rock in 2000 and 2007 after hyping the markets.

Jack sht this is NOT an INVESTMENT BLOG but a blog that bothers to search for the truth.

I guess you are smarter than Richard Russell too? Do you even know who he is?

There are times where he won't even buy Dia's, this is one. he has been RIGHT on GOLD.

It is obvious to the most informed out there, those interested in the peoples' well being, that rally or not the market is a fabrication of govt nd FED manipulation......you sir are nothing more than a hipster doofus and a fraud.

Marc R said...

So I make it my job to search for inconsistancies, for trouble when most others like yourself and committed to keeping those in the mkt, while whwo knows maybe you are selling to the would be bagholders.
Where is the balance? I'm sure the MILLIONS who want nothing more than a SAFE return and sit in cash are thrilled with current policies of bailing out the rich at the expense of others.

I look out for the OTHERS, while maybe you are ONLY concerned with making money.....hope that keeps you happy....I'd rather look out for the remainder of out population the other 99%.

IT is obvious my VOICE of CAUTION is in a distinct MINORITY, maybe near a LONE WOLF.....I like it that way....you follow the HERD, let's see if your sorry ass has the guts to come back here when the preverbial shit hits the fan....see how smug you are.

VIX below 14 shows no fear of decline, NO downtrend arrives without an UPTREND in the VIX....never said stocks couldn't go up.....I've said I dont like what lies underneathe it....truth be told

Marc R said...

ALSO....I run my OWN business, I come into contact with ALL Kinds of people.....they tell a different story than the roaring stock mkt...I'm not here to CHEER LEAD.
WTF knows, I could be dead wrong, but I BELEIVE in my OPINIONS....I BACK UP my beliefs....
"castles made of sand, slip into the sea eventually" date yourself, who said this?


How did the FED 1% policies end up last "CRISIS" in 2000- 2003?

IT didn't lead to the worst FINANCIAL CRISIS IN OUR HISTORY the 2007 Housing Bubble that burst?

How'd that work out jack?

Now the FED keeps rate at basically 0%? telegraphs til 2015? YET the Housing mkt sits near the BOTTOM and isn't leading economy, so what is JAck? Stocks? f me!

FED controls int rates?