Oh no! Not This Again!

Here we go again! Forget all the ruminating about how things are slated to go south in the markets and the economy. It seems all it "right" with the world - again.

Of course, that's how it seems. The reality remains what it is. But - and a BIG BUT: It would seem "they" have succeeded in pushing back any sort of reckoning (whether mild, reasonable or worse) for a few more months - maybe into 2025.

Yea, we were thinking this fall would bring trouble. And we were not all that excited about what's touted as a strong economy. And now this.

What's "this??

Well, we'll pass on a kind of summation of what we've concluded from our usual sources, plus some good additional resources that help us remain steady in the face of the fakery that passes for news, analysis, etc. spewing from the government, the Fed, and the financial and other legacy media.

Fakery? Well, yeah. We've brought a bunch of this fakery to the table in the past: the ginned up economic statistics, the faux employment numbers, the way the Fed's loose monetary regime has pumped up stocks (and bonds for a spell) far beyond reasonable levels. 

And we've tried many times to note how the financial and general media messes with our heads to spill happy sauce into the holes some of us already have up there.

Well, this conglomerate of fakery can and has propped up the stock market. And the same bunch have convinced at least some portion of the population that the economy is just bouncing along, not in a recession, and will not be - based on the so-called "soft landing" the Fed will engineer. (Yep, they're still on that horse.)

Now we can add the huge rescue package the Chinese government has brought to their table to avoid what could arguable be called an unfolding depression or near- depression. Their recent pumping actions will succeed for now, and likely will pump up Asian economies who trade with them.

And that all spills over - via all the interconnections of our interconnected world economies - to us. For now.

So even if all the stuff our own folks were doing was going to hit a wall, it was China to the rescue.

For now.

That's a lot of firepower deployed to monkey with the economy and the markets - endlessly monkey - to avoid any semblance of normal correction. And since they've been doing this for years - no decades - you'd think at some point they'd run out of ammunition. 

For now, they haven't. 

Will they?

At this point, it's tempting for some to throw up their hands and just go with the flow. Close your eyes, plug up your ears, and float along. Why not? The ostrich head in the sand routine has worked quite nicely for quite a long time.

Heck, maybe they've succeeded in eliminating the business cycle and can just go on propping up the markets. Why not?

Well, if anything is possible, it very well could be.

But some of us don't think anything is possible.

So we harrumph - yet again - and refocus on doing our best to stay safe. And that means keeping our hedges on, ignoring all the hoo-hah and being ready for the day.

Some will think that day will never come. Some think it won't come for a long time. And some (few?) just don't buy into all the fakery. 

And with that, you'd do well to wonder whether all this will end happily - or something far short of happy.

Enjoy the weekend!