When the Wall Street chart-monkeys get vertigo on steroids—cliff-diving one day and ripping higher the next—they eventually become foaming-at-the-mouth-manic.
That’s happening right now. And when the final blow-off mania arrives, that’s exactly when Wall Street bubbles are about to collapse.
So it’s time for a plan on how not to become: COLLATERAL DAMAGE.
As the markets first rebounded to ever more ludicrous heights after the Christmas Eve warning shot, and are now churning wildly like a whirling dervish, a singular question has become increasingly urgent. To wit:
How can I protect my investments when the breakdown now underway finally becomes an unstoppable meltdown like 2000 and 2008?
That question has become red hot with salience this week as the US/China gong show unfolds in Washington. The level of confusion, conflicting signals and sheer incompetence is so high that even the talking heads of bubblevision are at a loss for excuses.
After all, when the Secretary of the Treasury says one day that trade negotiations will resume in Beijing soon and China’s Ministry of Commerce says the next day that nothing of the kind is scheduled, we have reached the point of peak disconnect. Anything can happen next.
In fact, after Monday’s rout, it is looking more and more like the chart-monkeys are simply trying to tag a Triple Top because that’s what robo-machines and day traders do.
But it has nothing to do with investing, and is utterly uncoupled from the gathering storms in the domestic and global economy.
So the impending stock market retreat is temporarily biding its time as the chart-monkeys run their traps. But that’s the Sucker’s Rally part because the Donald’s trade trainwreck is just getting started, and it’s likely to end up being the catalyst that brings down the house.
As of last Thursday evening, US consumers and importers were being monkey-hammered with $62.5 billion of import taxes.
But the Donald has gotten so smitten with his tariff panacea that he’s now going the full monte: That is, fixing to impose a 25% tax on all $563 billion of Chinese imports, which would amount to a $140 billion unguided missile aimed at not just the domestic economy, but the entire China-focused global supply chain which serves it.
Moreover, even if cooler heads eventually prevail and there is a further interim trade truce or even some kind of face saving shape-of-the-table “deal”, it won’t really lift the gathering storm clouds. That kind of “deal” would merely initiate further rounds of uncertainty-generating “negotiations”.
In fact, it is virtually certain that no progress will be made on the Trade War before a potential Trump meeting with Emperor Xi at the G-20 Summit in late June; and even that meeting at best will be a glorified photo op designed to cool temperatures on both sides.
The fact is, the Donald’s Trade War is only one piece of the puzzle. What is actually happening is that Wall Street and Washington have run out of room to kick the can—not only on trade but also on a host of other incendiary issues.
The Fed has become a confused tower of babel, Washington is bitterly divided and paralyzed politically like never before, the national debt and US treasuring borrowing are soaring and the Orange Swan in the Oval Office is close to being completely out of control and off his rocker.
These conditions would be problematic enough in normal times—yet this moment is anything but normal.
The system just can’t take any BIG SHOCKS. That’s because the Fed is out of dry powder, main street is buried in debt and Wall Street is feverish with end-of-the-bubble speculation—-not the least exemplified by the growing bloodbath in IPOs of massively-hyped, red ink gushers like Lyft and Uber.
So to address these fraught conditions head-on, we will be holding a free webinar on Saturday, May 18th at noon ET.
We will be discussing our latest political, economic and market outlook with Chris Martenson of PeakProsperity.com. We’ll identify the risks that most concern us and the key crash indicators we’re watching most closely.
But more than just data, we also want to give you ideas for action—-for how to avoid becoming collateral damage as the two ends of the Acela Corridor threaten to stumble into a monumental collision.
That’s why we will also be joined by the managing partners of Peak Prosperity’s endorsed financial advisory firm who will field live Q&A from the audience regarding your most important questions on prudently navigating today’s dangerous markets.
Please join us for this free webinar by registering here. There are only a few slots still available for the live event on Saturday.
Still, don’t worry if you can’t attend the webinar when it airs live. A replay video of the full event will be sent out afterwards to everyone who registers.
One thing you can be sure of is that it’s only going to get more turbulent, confusing and unpredictable from here. So now is the time to get prepared and to put in place a portfolio strategy that can weather whatever may come barreling down the treacherous pike ahead. Register for this webinar now
