Monday, November 18, 2013

Hang Onto Your Shorts, Another Bubble Is On Its Way Says David Stockman

David Stockman: Bubbles Brewing Here, There, Everywhere

Monday, 18 Nov 2013 07:55 AM
By Dan Weil
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The Federal Reserve's massive easing program has created bubbles in asset markets, says David Stockman, White House budget director under President Reagan.

"They [Fed officials] have basically been dripping monetary morphine into Wall Street. And now we have a great bubble in everything," he tells Yahoo.

For example, the junk bond market now totals $1 trillion, above the 2007 peak, Stockman notes.

"We have the housing market riddled with speculators riding into Scottsdale, Ariz., on a John Deere lawn mower, thinking they're going to be landlords," he explains. "This is not recovery. This is not a healthy economy. This is just another giant bubble."

David Kotok, chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, holds a much less dire view. He tells Yahoo that bubbles can only be identified in retrospect, and doesn't think they exist in either the stock or housing market today.

"Do we have prices rising? . . . Yes," he said. "If that continues, it creates a bubble. After the fact when the bubble blows up, you can say aha there's a bubble."

CNNMoney columnist Paul La Monica doesn't think stocks are in a bubble either.

"If you look at the list of stocks hitting all-time highs, I'm not so sure that this market feels as 'toppy' as previous bulls. You can't really claim that stocks are being led higher just by speculative, overvalued companies," he writes.

Anheuser-Busch, 3M, CSX, Lowe's, Procter & Gamble and UPS each hit all-time peaks Thursday. But they all have reasonable price-earnings ratios in the mid-to-high teens, La Monica notes.

"That's not dirt cheap. But it's not a Big League Chew type bubble either."


Related Stories:

Pimco's Bill Gross: The Stock Market and Asset Prices Are 'Bubbly'

David Stockman: Fed Is Creating the 'Mother of All Bubbles'
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